Description:
Gold finger mourinng ring marked "IP" in a rectangle for John Potwine (1699-1792) - mark is extremely worn and faint, and inscribed inside the plain band "J.T. Esq., obit 20 Jan. 1733 Ae 67 yrs." Jared Talbot (1665/66-1733/34), the son of Jered Talbot (1622-1686) and Sarah Andrews of Taunton, Massachusetts, married Rebecca Hathaway (c.1667-1742) in 1687. Jared died in January 1733/1734 in Dighton, Massachusetts (subsection of Taunton), and his will was filed in Febuary. According to a newspaper clipping in the file: "The wife of Hon. Jacob Bates, of South Abington, has in her possession a gold ring, which descended from one of her ancestors, and which keeps in mind the ancient custom of presenting the bearers of the bier at funerals in those days, with some momemto of their service, In this instance a gentleman named Talbot, who deceased at or near Taunton, provided in his will that each of the bearers of his body to the grave be presented with a pair of pressed gloves and a gold ring. The latter, received by Mrs. Bates' ancestor, has always been preserved in her family, and is a plain hoop of very fine gold with the inscription: J.T. Esq., obit 20 Jan. 1733 Ae 67 yrs." Jewellery, chiefly rings and lockets, was sometimes worn in memory of a deceased person during set periods of mourning. The practice of bequeathing a ring for remembrance was known from the Middle Ages, and by the seventeenth century it had become customary to engrave rings with the name and the dates of the deceased, with the decorative design on a ground of black enamel. In England people would leave instructions in their wills for specific sums of money to be used by the executors to buy rings, and the recipients would be named. As a consequence of the Great Plague in London in the 1660s, mourning rings had to be made in enormous quantities. Most American mourning rings of this period were a variation on the engraved gold band. Symbols that now seem macabre to the modern eye, including coffins, skulls, and crossbones enameled with black or white, were frequently incorporated into mourning rings. These served as a constant reminder of the wearer’s mortality, while the circular band suggested eternity. Scrollwork designs influenced by Rococo motifs were also popular decoration for mourning rings, and were highlighted with enamel or colored stones. Bands were inscribed with personal information of the deceased, usually the name accompanied by the dates of birth and death. Mourning or funeral rings were made to distribute at the funeral to friends and relatives; the quantity depended on the prominence of the individual. While wealthier colonists commissioned their rings from London jewelers, they were also produced by American goldsmiths. Early goldsmiths and jewelry makers utilized trade cards to establish their business and advertise the variety of their products. The high demand for memorial jewelry was the foundation of the American jewelry industry.
Tags:
mourning Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+66.453 |
