FINGER RING

Gold posy ring with a plain band or hoop, D-shaped in section with a flat inner side. There is an incised inscription running around most of the inside of the hoop. It reads 'Christ and thee are all to mee ', and all the letters are in lower case italics, apart from an initial upper case letter 'C' of Christ. The long 's' in Christ is more like an 'f '' and this style of 's' stopped being used in about 1780 (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/why-f-instead-of-s-in-old-fashioned-spellings). The inscription terminates in a stamped maker's mark 'I D' in Roman capitals within a rectangular punch. The term 'posy', based on the French poésy or poetry, describes the amatory verse or rhyming motto with which the rings are engraved.

Oman (1974, 41) suggests that italic inscriptions generally replaced those of Roman capitals in the second quarter of the 17th century, until posy rings became unfashionable in the 19th century. The inscription is similar to one on a posy ring held by the British Museum (BM number 1961,1202.54), which reads 'Christ & thee are all to mee' and was made by Samuel Dell in Taunton c.1685-1698. The letters are very similar in style, and the only difference in the inscription is the '&' or ampersand.

See also the posy ring in the British Museum's collections (BM number AF.1319) with a very similar maker's mark 'ID' which is dated to c.1710 because there is the same maker's mark on another posy ring (BM number 1961,1202.2) which has the date of 1710 inscribed inside the hoop. So this ring is likely to date from this time, if it is the same maker, and therefore is old enough to be considered as potential Treasure. As the stamp is also similar to that of Samuel Dell's above, as is the inscription, this maker could perhaps be a descendant.

See SOM-252B7B on the database for a similar gold posy ring with the inscription:'Let Christ and we united be'.