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LOT 0339
'The Witham on the Hill' Medieval Gold 'The Beautiful Game' Posy Ring with Matched Pairs of Flowers
CIRCA 1400-1500 A.D.
5/8 in. (1.68 grams, 16.92 mm overall, 15.39 mm internal diameter (approximate size British I 1/2, USA 4 1/2, Europe 8.07, Japan 7)).
Flat-section straightened hoop with incised blackletter text 'le belle ie[u]' translating to 'the beautiful game' with interposed flowers and stalks.
ProvenanceFound whilst searching with a metal detector near Witham on the Hill, South Kesteven, Lincolnshire, UK, on Sunday 9th January 2022, by Mark Bowen.
Accompanied by a copy of the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) report no.CAM-D675E8.
Accompanied by a copy of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Treasure receipt and and disclaimed with Treasure case tracking no.2022T153.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12139-214843.
Cf. Hindman. S. et al., Toward an Art History of Medieval Rings: A Private Collection, London, 2007, item 26, for similar script on an English gold ring; see Jones, M., 'The Beautiful Game - Courtly Love posies in Anglo-Norman inscribed on jewellery and seals', in The Journal of the British Archaeological Society (forthcoming), for inscription.
FootnotesThe final word of the inscription is ie for ie[u], an Anglo-Norman spelling of modern French jeu ‘game’. The game in question is, of course,
love (not football!). The ‘game’ of love here is what we now refer to as Courtly Love (amour courtois, fin amor) and the phrase ‘beautiful game’ is also found on another ring recorded on the PAS database as YORYM-0A0FD2, the whole, a rhyming couplet, reading AMIE EN VV/ [E]ST MA VIE BELE GIEV [Beloved, in you my life is a beautiful game].
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AUCTIONS:
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LOT 0339
'The Witham on the Hill' Medieval Gold 'The Beautiful Game' Posy Ring with Matched Pairs of Flowers
Sold for (Inc. bp): £4,160
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Medieval Lead Weight Collection
Circa 14th-16th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £39
Primarily discoid and shield-shaped in plan, displaying floral, cruciform and enigmatic designs in relief. 664 grams total, 35-63 mm
Ex Simmons Gallery, London E11, UK, in the 1990s. From a North London collection.
Shield-shaped weights are common detector finds. They are widespread across England and most common in the north of the country. Lead discs are very common as well, with both often engraved with the badge of the trader. -
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Opening Bid: £50
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Ex property of a late Japanese collector, 1970s. -
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Obverse with hatched cross and rings in the spandrels, reverse with crouching ape eating a fruit – as found on contemporary seal-matrices. 0.64 grams, 16 mm
Found Billingsgate spoil from the Thames foreshore, London, UK, circa 1984. Property of an Essex collector.
