Memento Mori ring

Memento Mori ring (17th century)

University of Oxford - Ashmolean Museum

Gold ring, the shoulders chased with scrolled leaves and with two graduated diamonds, the bezel with skull and cross-bones in white and black enamel and diamonds set in the eye sockets, the nose and in groups of three at top, base and sides

15.9 mm internal ring diameter; 6.48 g weight

Bought in Florence

Presented by Dr C.D.E. Fortnum in honour of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, 1897; WA1899.CDEF.F476

Mortality rates were high in the sixteenth and seventeenth century due to war, plague and famine and Memento Mori rings, such as this example, were intended to remind the wearer of their mortal state. This is one of the finest examples of its type.

Scarisbrick and Henig, Finger Rings, 2003, pl. 20.2

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