Details

LOT 0351

'The Dummer' Medieval Knight's Hospitaller Gold Ring

ENGLAND, CIRCA 1500-1540 A.D.

3/4 in. (1.21 grams, 18.40 mm overall, 16.62 mm internal diameter (approximate size British L 1/2, USA 6, Europe 11.87, Japan 11)).

Featuring a sub-circular integral bezel decorated with an eight-armed Maltese cross with some incised decoration in its foils and a sub-circular border with traces of enamel in the field; the moulded shoulders bordered by a long triangle terminating with a long sub-oval indentation, slightly raised and decorated with two parallel lines and two circles with lines through the middle, possibly a stylised letter 'G', the shoulders tapering slightly to the narrowest section of the now straightened narrow and undecorated band.

Provenance

Found Dummer, Basingstoke and Deane, Hampshire, UK; declared as Treasure under the Treasure Act and disclaimed.

Accompanied by a copy of a letter explaining that the Crown’s interest in this find has been disclaimed.
Accompanied by a copy of the Report on find of Potential Treasure for H M Coroner no.2023 T292.
Accompanied by a copy of the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) report no.HAMP-463CD7.

Literature

Several examples with a similar shape are noted in Scarisbrick and Henig, p.55-63, and are typically dated c.16th century.

Footnotes

This motif is symbolic of membership in an Order of Knights Hospitaller, such as the Order of St John. In England, these Knights ceased to hold property after 1540 and the English Reformation. This suggests that the ring is from the earlier part of the sixteenth century. However, the letter 'G' is a prominent symbol of Freemasonry, where it typically stands for Geometry and/or God, the 'Grand Architect of the Universe'.