Details

LOT 0419

Tudor Period Silver Ring with 'Amuletic' Toad Stone

WESTERN EUROPE, 16TH CENTURY A.D.

1 1/8 in. (4.53 grams, 29.85 mm overall, 20.51 mm internal diameter (approximate size British T, USA 9 1/2, Europe 21.26, Japan 20)).

Round-section hoop supporting a discoid bezel, claw setting with inset 'toadstone' amulet.

Provenance

Private collection, Europe.
Acquired on the French art market.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.13074-248390.

Literature

An almost identical example can be found in the collection of the British Museum, London, Registration number: AF.1026; another example can be found in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, accession no.WA1897.CDEF.F810.

Footnotes

William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, circa. 1599; ‘Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears a precious jewel in his head yet’. Toadstones are mythical stones that were thought to be found inside the head of a toad. They were believed to sweat, change colour or even heat up in the presence of poison. It was thought that a toadstone placed on bites from snakes, insects, spiders and shrews would extract poison from the wound. They were thought to bring good luck and ward off evil, whether in the present life or in the afterlife. The Book of Secrets from the 13th century recommends swallowing the stone to 'cleanse the bowels of filth and excrements'. The stone could then be retrieved and used again. They were often set as amulets and talismans, a practice that continued in Europe until the 18th century. Toadstones are actually the button-like fossilised teeth of Lepidotes, an extinct genus of fish common in the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods, 200 to 100 million years ago.