Memento Mori Georgian 18th Century Skull and Bones Ring
18th century AD. A silver ring with the hoop formed of four lentoid plaques, openwork shoulders with two radiating leaves supporting a large oval bezel frame with scalloped edge, inset with a slightly domed bezel with a central coffin lid with skull, crossbones and a wheel representing fortune, inscription 'memento mori' and a star surrounding.xx
17.80 grams, 24.62mm overall, 17.75mm internal diameter (approximate size British O, USA 7, Europe 14.98, Japan 14) (1").
From the private collection of a Buckinghamshire gentleman; acquired on the UK art market before 2000.
The motif of a skull and wheel of fortune is Hellenistic in origin. The most striking example of the iconography can be seen in a mosaic from Pompeii, today in The National Archaeological Museum of Naples (inv.no.109982), in which death is presented as the great leveller who cancels out all difference of wealth and class.
17.80 grams, 24.62mm overall, 17.75mm internal diameter (approximate size British O, USA 7, Europe 14.98, Japan 14) (1").
From the private collection of a Buckinghamshire gentleman; acquired on the UK art market before 2000.
The motif of a skull and wheel of fortune is Hellenistic in origin. The most striking example of the iconography can be seen in a mosaic from Pompeii, today in The National Archaeological Museum of Naples (inv.no.109982), in which death is presented as the great leveller who cancels out all difference of wealth and class.
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