Rights Holder: Northamptonshire County Council
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FINGER RING
Unique ID: NARC-6CC178
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Published 
Description: Medieval gold finger ring with an oval bezel, setting for (missing) stone held by ten claws, damaged. Band of ring is distorted into a D shape. The band of the ring is engraved with tears or drops of blood starting at the bezel (on both sides) and terminating midway down the band, leaving the lower portion of the bezel plain. The band tapers in width, thickest at the bezel.
Dimensions: Diameter at widest:19.38mm
Bezel width: 7.56mm
Bezel height: 3.57mm
Band thickness (max):6.05mm
Band thickness (min): 2.74mm
Weight: 3.3g
Discussion: This ring probably was intended to provide some kind of healing property to the wearer. Jewellery depicting the tears or blood of Christ, and the Five Wounds of Christ, were popular motifs for the expression of piety in Late Medieval Europe. The droplets may originally have been enamelled, although no traces of this survive.
For other examples of rings depicting the tears or blood of Christ see Treasure cases 2011 T131 and 2009 T416.
Notes:
Consequently, in terms of age and as the object contains a minimum of 10% precious metal it qualifies as Treasure under the stipulations of the Treasure Act 1996.
Subsequent actions
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder after being disclaimed as Treasure
Treasure details
Treasure case tracking number: 2012T711
Chronology
Broad period: MEDIEVAL
Period from: MEDIEVAL
Period to: MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 1450
Date to: Circa AD 1550
Dimensions and weight
Quantity: 1
Thickness: 6.05 mm
Weight: 3.3 g
Diameter: 19.38 mm
Personal details
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Other reference numbers
Treasure case number: 2012T711
Materials and construction
Primary material: Gold
Manufacture method: Cast
Completeness: Complete
Spatial metadata
Region: East Midlands (European Region)County or Unitary authority: Northamptonshire (County)
District: Daventry (District)
Parish or ward: Preston Capes (Civil Parish)
Spatial coordinates
4 Figure: SP5653
Four figure Latitude: 52.172428
Four figure longitude: -1.182559
1:25K map: SP5653
1:10K map: SP55SE
Grid reference source: GPS (from the finder)
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 1 metre square.
References cited
No references cited so far.
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Timeline of associated dates
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