Description
Gold ring with a triangular section hoop, angular on the interior and the exterior, and flattened ends to support the disc-shaped bezel. Framed within finely engraved lines encircling the bezel is a pelican vulning itself, seen in profile with outstretched wings and drops of blood splashing from its chest. The ring shows signs of wear through age and is in good wearable condition. The bezel is soldered to the hoop on the rear.
The pelican was a popular motif from the twelfth century onwards through the later Middle Ages. It was popularized in the medieval Bestiary, where the motif of the bird feeding its young with its own blood signified Christ who bled on the cross for the sins of mankind. It was described as pelican in piety or pelican vulning itself. The imagery remained extremely consistent through three centuries and the motif is depicted here as it appears already in manuscript illumination from the twelfth century. The form of the ring, its hoop and bezel, suggest a date c. 1500, and the engraving points toward England.
Literature:
For the pelican motif on gold signet rings with different shaped bezels, cf. examples in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (792-871); British Museum, London (Dalton 1912, nos. 537, 542, 635, 614 and 644); Alice and Louis Koch Collection in the Swiss National Museum Zurich (Chadour 1994, vol.1, no. 636). The rings are from England and date from the late fifteenth to early seventeenth century. For the proportions of signet here, cf. Dalton 1912, no. 251, and Chadour 1994, vol. 1, no. 641 and 642, 16th century.