Or a leg ring inscribed '+Earle of Rutland' in derivative black letter script, for a female merlin or sparrow hawk (due to the youth of Edmund Plantagenet who died aged 17); the ring with a convex interior face.

PROVENANCE:
Acquired in the 1960s.
Ex Bursnall collection, Leicestershire, UK.
From the collection of a North American gentleman.

PUBLISHED:
Lewis, M. and Richardson, I., Inscribed Vervels, Oxford, 2019; Type B listed on pp.87-8 where dated c.1450-c.1600, with the note that it was previously sold by Timeline Auctions 2 December 2011, lot 793.

FOOTNOTES:
Unique and with links to royalty and the Wars of the Roses. Edmund Plantagenet, Earl of Rutland was executed after the Battle of Wakefield (probably by John Clifford) and was the son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York (a great-grandson of Edward III, father of Edward IV and one of the most powerful English magnates during the Wars of the Roses between the Yorkists and Lancastrians). The first Earl of Rutland was Edmund Plantagenet (grandson of Edward III and executed following the Southampton Plot against Henry V), uncle to Richard. The Earldom of Rutland has historically been closely linked to the Duchy and House of York.