LOT 1273

Medieval Silver-Gilt Fede Ring

13TH-14TH CENTURY A.D.

1 in. (2.69 grams, 24.69 mm overall, 22.78 mm internal diameter (approximate size British X, USA 11 1/2, Europe 26.23, Japan 25)).

A silver-gilt fede ring composed of a flat-section hoop with expanded bottom section and quatrefoil bezel; the hoop engraved with alternating vertical and horizontal hatched panels with expanded central section crudely engraved with clasped hands; bezel engraved with a cross embellished with cross-hatching in each quarter of the field.

Found near Brookland, Kent, UK, 2007.
Property of a Kent gentleman.

Accompanied by a copy of the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) report no. KENT-299A33.
Accompanied by a copy of two letters from the British Museum and report for HM Coroner for Treasure case T493.
Accompanied by a valuation letter and another from Peter D Spencer.
Accompanied by a provisional treasure valuation for the Treasure Valuation Committee.

Cf. The British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme database, record id. LEIC-C4F333, for similar; see Jones, M., The Secret Middle Ages, Stroud, 2002, pp.216-20.

The quatrefoil bezel is in the form of a truelove (paris quadrifolia) as the plant was called in Middle English. Two fifteenth-century wills include the bequest of rings in the shape of a truelove: in 1407 an anulum argenti operatum cum uno trewlove [silver ring fashioned with a truelove] and in 1464, unum anulum argenti et deauratum cum uno trew lofe [a silver and silver-gilt ring with a truelove] On seals the device is most often accompanied by the legend LEL AMI AVET [you have a true love] confirming its identification with faithful love, and on a matrix recently unearthed [PAS database SWYOR-B7EDA9] the characteristic four veined leaves are surrounded by the posy, IS SVI FLVRE/ DE FINN AMVVR [I am the flower of perfect love].