Gold Ring with Clasped Hands Cameo
, Cameo: Roman 2nd-3rd century AD; modern mount
Gold Ring with Clasped Hands Cameo
Description
A Roman token of concord in marriage
Gold ring with D-section, plain on the interior and exterior. The hoop widens and thickens towards the bezel set with an oval-shaped cameo depicting a dextrarum iunctio (Latin: clasped right hands) in off-white on a brownish-grey ground. The hands are surmounted by a stylistic wreath with ‘x’ forms and below is the inscription “OMONOIA” (Unity, Concord). Below on the hoop of the gold ring are two French hallmarks: eagle head (guarantee mark for 18ct gold) and a lozenge-shaped unidentified maker’s mark depicting a hammer and likely a letter. The ring is in good wearable condition.
Literature:
In Roman times the right hand was sacred to Fides, the goddess of trust and good faith. The clasping of the right hands of a betrothed couple was a gesture of loyalty and mutual accord, following the agreement of a marriage contract. The clasping of the right hands was a symbolic gesture of the union of the bride and bridegroom, but not part of a wedding ceremony. The wreath depicted above the clasped hands alludes to the bride wearing during the wedding celebration a wreath consisting of herbal flowers. For further details on wedding rituals during the Roman period, see: Beatriz Chadour-Sampson, The Power of Love, Jewels Romance and Eternity, London 2019, p. 15.
For the dextrarum iunctio motif, cf. a 3rd-century AD Roman ring with sardonyx cameo from the Content Collection, in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden (Martin Henig, The Content Family Collection of Ancient Cameos, Oxford and Houlton, Maine 1990, no. 50, with further references and comparisons), and a Roman ring of the 2nd half of the 2nd century AD in the Alice and Louis Koch Collection in the Swiss National Museum, Zurich (Chadour, 1994, vol. 1, no. 312. Not all the cameos include the wreath. The design of the gold ring goes back to signet rings worn in the Renaissance period.