From the Exhibition:
A View from the Jeweler’s Bench: Ancient Treasures, Contemporary Statements
Many pieces of jewelry embrace an intensely personal
and intimate expression of identity that has invariably led to associations with
strong emotions or significant personal events, and even a coded language where
flowers, birds, knots, and a multitude of other motifs each had a meaning. Such
jewelry could serve to convey messages from lovers, family, or friends,
commemorate the birth of a child or significant event, serve as a souvenir, or
a touchstone for grief. Jewelry that contains such codified significance has
been labeled “sentimental.” Sentimental jewelry has been popular throughout
history but was especially prevalent during the nineteenth century.
Often sentimental pieces use symbolic language to communicate a message, and
the Victorians in particular excelled and reveled in these coded messages. The
Victorian forget-me-knot ring in the exhibition A View From the Jeweler’s Bench: Ancient Treasures, Contemporary
Statements bursts with such symbols. Three turquoise forget-me-knot flowers
form a striking composition: one of the flowers adorns the front of a hanging
heart pendant while the other two flank an eternity knot. This grouping is held
by two hands that wrap around the gold band of the ring. Together they broadcast
a powerful message of everlasting love and friendship that would have been
recognized not only by the maker, and the original wearer but also by anyone
familiar with the symbolic language of jewelry.
The materials hold meaning in themselves. Turquoise was believed to be
talismanic. In 1569 writer Edward Fenton said in his “Secrets of Nature” that
turquoise would move if the wearer was in danger.
By Shakespeare’s time turquoise’s power to protect was popularized to the point
that it has been suggested that the playwright references this quality in
Othello when Shylock mourns the loss of turquoise given to him by his wife Leah
before they were married.
Gold has been significant in many cultures across the globe, frequently bringing
the wearer closer to the divine.
The motifs contained in this ring have a long history,
the hands, and knots in particular can be traced back to the late Old Kingdom
and Middle Kingdom in ancient Egypt respectively.
The hand has been a potent talisman on its own and is frequently seen in amulet
jewelry, where often the position of the fingers hold particular significance.
Clasped hands on rings have held symbolic meaning since antiquity. During the
Roman empire engagement rings frequently depicted two clasped hands to
represent the sealing of a contract. Clasped hands continued to be a common
motif for rings though it is unclear whether surviving historic examples are
engagement rings or purely tokens of love.
These types of rings persist today and are now known as fede rings (a shortening of mani in fede, which means “hands
clasped in faith” in Italian), given frequently as gifts of
enduring love or friendship. Hands holding hearts are also common in this type
of ring.
In the Victorian ring presented
here, the hands offer up the turquoise forget-me-knot flowers, heart, and
eternity knot. The meaning of these symbols goes beyond purely talismanic.
Associated with eternal love, knots like this one have become known as “lover’s
knots.” They were seen as being flexible and yet inseparable. If two ends of a
knot are pulled it only gets tighter, a significant fact treasured during a
time of frequent long separations in relationships with little means of
communication.
The forget-me-not flower was true to its name, expressing the desire that the
wearer not forget someone, in this case probably the giver.
The heart symbolized love.
Such treasures from the past are
highly valued today and finding an exceptional example such as this is often
elusive. When pieces of sentimental jewelry are worn by their modern
collectors, they accrue new meanings and stories like a fine patina. Beth
Bernstein, a discerning jewelry expert, generously loaned this ring from her
private collection, after having searched for a ring with this combination of
symbols for years (fig. 1). She considers it a rare prize that “had all the different meanings that
make up the sentimental jewelry that I love so much.”
Sasha Nixon curated A View from the Jeweler’s Bench:
Ancient Treasures, Contemporary Statements. She is a graduate of the master’s
program, and the exhibition is based on the subject of her qualifying paper.
For further reading see Shirley Bury, Sentimental
Jewellery (London: Victoria and Albert Museum Press, 1985).
As cited in George Frederick Kunz, Rings for the Finger: From the Earliest Known Times to the Present, with Full Description of the Origin, Early Making, Materials, the Archaeology, History, for Affection, for Love, for Engagement, for Wedding, Commemorative, Mourning, Etc. (1917; New York: Dover, 1973), 220.
Kunz, Rings for the Finger, 220.
The Old Kingdom in Ancient Egypt is dated to 2686–2181 BC and the Middle Kingdom to 2055–1650 BC. Hugh Tait, ed., 7000 years of Jewelry (Buffalo: Firefly Books, 2008), 203.
Ibid., 212.
Ibid., 234–36.
Bury, Sentimental Jewellery, 9–11.
Beth Bernstein, “The Romantic Language of Flowers in Antique Jewelry,” The Jewellery Editor, August 10, 2015, http://www.thejewelleryeditor.com/jewellery/vintage/article/flowers-in-antique-jewellery-symbolism/.
Beth Bernstein, “The Meaning and Symbolism of Heart Jewelry Throughout History,” Bejeweled Magazine, 2017, accessed March 10, 2019, https://www.bejeweledmag.com/have-a-heart/.
Beth Bernstein, email conversation with the author, March 3, 2019.