Diamond cluster ring with locket
1670 - 1690
Locket rings were fashionable in the seventeenth century, but this ring remains an enigma because of its concealed message. When opened, the inside lid reveals an engraved portrait of a young man with long hair wearing a jabot. Inside the case against a translucent green enameled ground appears another little figure of a man wearing green clothing and pink sleeves. He swings a rope across his shoulders, and at his knee is placed an oversized pink rose. Memorial ring or wedding ring? Published several times in the last quarter century, this unusual ring has been interpreted as a memorial ring, the portrait as a memento of a recently deceased family member. Understood in this context, the gardener could refer to the resurrected Jesus who appears to Mary Magdalene disguised as a gardener. The garden itself evokes nature, which dies in the winter and comes to life in the spring, again a fitting allusion for a memorial ring. An alternative interpretation, however, sees the gardener in a “Garden of Love,” the rope slung over his shoulders symbolizing the bond of devotion, the rose at his feet a well-known allusion to love, and the green background suggesting the fertility of spring. Understood from this other perspective, the locket ring could have been given as a betrothal or wedding ring. Whatever its meaning, the ring must have been commissioned for a special occasion, for there is none other like it. The eleven facetted diamonds vary in cut from table to rose to triangular. The underside of the bezel is richly enameled with symmetrically arranged floral speckles in white and rose on a blue background.
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