LOT 0496

Medieval Gold Love Ring with Historic Natural Diamond

14TH-15TH CENTURY AD

1 1/4" (2.09 grams, 29.10mm overall, 18.84mm internal diameter (approximate size British Q, USA 8, Europe 17.49, Japan 16)).

A gold ring with slender D-section hoop engraved with scrollwork design and 'AMA' (love) 'DIO' (possibly Amadeus or God?) lettering in two sections around the hoop; scooped shoulders and calyx-shaped bezel set with stunning natural diamond.

Property of an English collector; acquired from John Moor, York, UK, in the late 1990s; accompanied by an independent specialist report and valuation by graduate gemmologist and jewellery expert Anna Rogers, GIA GG, BA, Gem-A, ref. no.168684/07/12/2020; this lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by AIAD certificate number no. 10442-168684.

Cf. Victoria & Albert Museum, Gold ring set with a diamond Europe c1400 inscribed Ava Maria, London; Scarisbrick, D., Rings. Jewellery of Power, Love and Loyalty, London, 2013, pp.302-303, for a comparable love ring and diamond.

It was around 1400 AD that the point-cut for the diamond was developed using the natural pyramidal structure of the natural stone. Resistant to fire and the hammer, the diamond became the quintessential stone for use in betrothal rings, representing continuity and strength for the proposed relationship. King Edward III of England is believed to have given a comparable ring as a gift to a wealthy Flemish textile manufacturer, the godfather of the king's third son, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.