FINGER RING

British Museum Report:

"The find consists of a finger-ring of silver wire with the ends knotted round the hoop and forming a triple wire bezel with a blue glass bead strung on the central wire; diameter, 18mm (max); weight, 0.73 grams.

Surface metal analysis conducted at the British Museum indicated an approximate silver content for wire of the ring of 98%, with 2% copper. The wire is not only in relatively good condition, but also has a refined silver composition which suggests it is of recent manufacture. The blue bead, on the other hand, has a weathered surface and is a leaded glass, coloured with cobalt. Its composition could be either Roman, or of more recent manufacture."

Additional Details:

The internal diameter is 13.2mm. Many recently reported wire wound finger rings with slip knots have been found to be of Modern date.

The finger ring is made from a single strand of silver wire which is circular in section and which has a consistant diameter of 0.8mm - 0.9mm. It has been formed into a circular loop of 15.5mm diameter, the loop having two turns of wire, and the bezel formed from three strands. The ends of the wire are coiled round the hoop at the ends of the bezel, two turns at each side.

The three strands of wire forming the bezel have been bent apart to make the bezel a pointed oval shape. The central strand has an annular dark blue glass bead threaded on it. The bead is oval in plan, 4.9mm long, and 4mm wide. It is D shaped in section and of irregular thickness, about 2.3mm. The surface of the bead is slightly pitted and there are two slightly larger concavities opposite each other on the part of the bead forming the outer part of the bezel.

A similar finger ring with a bead forming the bezel is NLM31 which was considered impossible to date. It differs from this example in having square sectioned wire. Square sectioned wire is a characteristic which is often indicitive of Modern examples, for example, ESS-4C0457 and KENT-697734 (2013T52), the latter of which was found through metal analysis to be made from sterling silver and therefore almost certainly of modern date.

The undateable NLM31 is the only other wire finger ring with a bead bezel on the database.

The uniformity of the wire, the object's good condition, the lack of other early medieval finds from the vacinity and the similarity to known modern jewellery argue for a Modern date for this finger ring.