A rectangular-section band, the exterior engraved with reserved acanthus leaves separating three reserved scrolls inscribed in blackletter French script 'tout mou couer' (with 'mou' being a variant spelling for 'mon' and thus reading 'All my Heart').

PROVENANCE:
Ex Peter Trill collection, Dorset, UK; found Corfe Castle, Dorset, UK, by Mr Eric Trill in the early 1980s; thence by descent. Supplied with a positive X-Ray Fluorescence metal analysis certificate.

PUBLISHED:
Recorded with the Portable Antiquities Scheme with reference number DOR-27E4D3; accompanied by a print out of the PAS report. Accompanied by an Art Loss Register certificate. The story of this ring and its finding has been filmed, interviewing the late finder and others, under the title 'Revealing Secrets' (see video link above) and a copy of the dvd accompanies the ring.

LITERATURE:
Disclaimed under the Treasure Act, reference number 2015 T173; accompanied by a disclaiming letter and other correspondence. See Evans, J., English Posies and Posy Rings, Oxford, 1931, p.14 for similar Black Letter inscriptions; see Dalton, O. M., Frank's Bequest Catalogue of the Finger Rings, London, 1912, no.970 for a ring of very similar form.

FOOTNOTES:
The ring was found at Corfe Castle, Dorset, in the 1980s and, as the date of finding was before September 1997, it was judged under the historic common law procedure for Treasure Trove; as there was no evidence for it to have been 'hidden with intent to recover', it was disclaimed. Corfe Castle has stood overlooking the village and a gap in Challow Hill in the Isle of Purbeck since the time of William the Conqueror and includes one of the earliest stone-built fortifications in England; Corfe derives from the Old English ceorfan (cutting) and the site has shown evidence of earlier occupation in Saxon times with the young Saxon king Edward the Martyr being slain here in 978 AD, only three years after succeeding to the throne. The Norman castle has seen many historic events, from its initial construction soon after the Battle of Hastings, the erection of the stone keep by Henry I, the castle was besieged by Stephen during the Anarchy period, it was enlarged by John and further altered by Henry III; during the Wars of the Roses, Edmund Beaufort marched from it to the battle of Wakefield; it was sold by Elizabeth I to Sir Christopher Hatton and passed to Sir John Bankes in 1635, following which, during the Civil War, it held for the king and was besieged and then relieved; in 1645 it was besieged again and captured by the Parliamentarian forces of Colonel Bingham, following which it was 'slighted' to prevent it being used and was robbed by locals for its stone; although the castle was regained by the Bankes family following the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, it was never again occupied and passed to the National Trust in 1980. The ring dates to the Wars of the Roses period, at a time when English was the Common tongue and Latin the language of the Church and law but French was still the language of the Court, of chivalry and of love; its French inscription embodies the Medieval ideals of love and it would have been the gift to a noble lady from her future husband on their betrothal.