Rights Holder: Oxfordshire County Council
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Unique ID: BERK-F12F65
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation
A complete cast copper alloy signet finger ring of late medieval or early post-medieval date. The finger ring is large with an internal diameter of 22.2mm. It is D-shaped in section and has an integral oval bezel rising from the expanded shoulders of the ring. One either shoulder is a Tau Cross, one clearer than the other. The bezel has a chased design of a double-headed eagle within ropework border. The finger ring could be impressed in to wax to produce a reverse of the image and act as a signiture. The size of the ring suggests it was made for a man, and may have been worn over gloves.
The use of signet rings gained wider currency from the later middle ages onwards. The double-headed eagle is seen on lead tokens of Elizabeth I (AD 1558-1603) but was used across Europe during the medieval period, and is often associated with power and dominance. The Tau Cross was a symbol associated with the early Christian St Anthony of Egypt and was regarded as a form of crucifix in the Eastern or Orthodox Christian tradition. It also interested St Francis, the founder of the Order of Greyfriars.
A parallel to the Tau cross on the shoulders occurs on the gold episcopal ring of Richard Mayo, Bishop of Hereford (1504-1518; Merewether 1844, 249; Cherry 1995, 151-52). Its shoulder are engraved with a tau-shaped cross filled with green enamel and below it a small engraved bell, while the inside of the ring bears the inscription ave maria (Cherry 2003, 371). Mayo's tau cross may have represented a continuing connection with Antonine hospitals which devoted themselves mostly to the treatment of the disease known as St Anthony's fire, or ignis sacer (also known as erysipelas; Husband 1992, 25; Cherry 2003, 152), as well as being invoked against plague. In 1995, there were twenty-five rings known from England or in English collections bearing the tau cross on shoulder or hoop, and sixteen of those listed are signet rings (Cherry 1995). All are fifteenth or early sixteenth century, coinciding with the popularity of the Antonines from the mid-fifteenth century to the early sixteenth century.
Tau crosses include those in the British Museum (Dalton 1912, nos 528, 530, 592), Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Fortnum Collection, 329), and V&A collection (Oman 1930, no. 542), and it is possible that some of the rings belonged to persons who were connected with the orders under the patronage of St Anthony.
This has been noted as an interesting find by the recorder.
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: MEDIEVAL
Period from: MEDIEVAL
Period to: POST MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 1400
Date to: Circa AD 1600
Quantity: 1
Length: 27.2 mm
Height: 30.3 mm
Width: 13.7 mm
Thickness: 4.6 mm
Diameter: 22.2 mm
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Other reference: OXPAS2016.767
Primary material: Copper alloy
Manufacture method: Cast
Decoration style: Zoomorphic
Completeness: Complete
4 Figure: SU5689
Four figure Latitude: 51.59706972
Four figure longitude: -1.19292628
1:25K map: SU5689
1:10K map: SU58NE
Grid reference source: From a paper map
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 10 metre square.
No references cited so far.