Renaissance Merchant's Ring

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Renaissance Merchant's Ring

About the Item

The heavy gold band angled at the shoulders, which are pierced on each side with a fleur-de-lis motif, diminishes in a ridge to join an octagonal bezel. Engraved with the initials W.S. (in reverse for sealing), the octagonal bezel displays a merchant’s mark that consists of a cross, a circle, and a figure along a vertical axis. The perimeter of the bezel shows a cabled border. With the founding of the Hanseatic League in 1356, European trade routes encouraged the commercial exchange of all sorts of goods, timber, furs, resin, flax, honey, wheat, rye, cloth, metal ore, and herring, from Germany and Scandinavia to Flanders and London. The expansion of international trade brought with it the need for merchants to identify their products and sign their contracts, so it is no surprise that merchants’ rings originate around the same time as the Hanseatic League. Because most merchants did not have the right to bear arms, they used symbols and sometimes their initials instead of heraldic motifs. The merchant’s mark is, in fact, the forerunner of the modern trademark, as Girling has observed. The fact that the vast majority of merchants’ rings survive in silver or bronze or brass confirms their essentially utilitarian purpose; gold merchants’ rings survive but in much smaller numbers. Apparently unrecorded, the present ring must have been owned by a wealthy merchant who was able to pay for the gold. As Girling states, “It may be said that in the study of merchant marks and of personal marks in general, we are still in the stage of collecting data.” Here is what we know. Merchants’ marks were in use from at least the thirteenth century. They may derive ultimately from the runic alphabet. Bakers, bookbinders, masons, papermakers, tapestry makers, bell-founders, coopers, and glaziers, among other craftsmen, used them. They are related to cattle brands and to swan marks. Built around an upright stem, they typically include a cross, an inverted ”V” and a “4” symbol, all of which appear on the present example. The significance of these symbols is unknown: some have suggested that the “4” symbol is a kind of sign of the cross, but although it must have had significance, the meaning is now lost. Although they look surprisingly similar to each other because they typically comprise the same elements, upon careful examination each merchant’s mark is different. In a few cases, a stonemason’s hammer engraved on the bezel identifies the trade of the owner or a prayer and an inscription on the band supplies his name. But, such precise details of identity are rare, and merchants’ rings constitute a body of surviving evidence from the late Middle Ages with a mysterious still-undeciphered language. Weight 13.88 grams Height 28.6 mm.; hoop inner diam. 21.5 mm.; hoop outer diam. 25.6 mm.; bezel 11 x 12 mm.

Place of Origin:
England
Date of Manufacture:
15th century
Condition:
Good.
Seller Location:
New York, NY
Reference Number:
Seller: PR 311stDibs: JU12020127928