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Auction: 26052 - Jewellery & Objets de Vertu
Lot: 39

A LARGE MEDIEVAL GARNET GOLD RING
CIRCA 1300-1400
With a high closed-back pie-dish bezel on a rounded hoop.
Together with the rectangular hollow-backed almandine garnet cabochon, or 'carbuncle', formerly set in the bezel and now separate.
Analysed as 79.73% gold, 11.17% silver, 9.10% copper
Gross weight: 5.01g

The garnet is now separate from the ring. The garnet shows surface scratches and wear with light nibbling to the edge, and some natural dark mineral inclusions, but is stable and could be reset in the bezel. The hoop is distorted and squashed out of its original circular shape, the bezel wall is slightly damaged, and there are occasional scuffs from excavation. The ring could be restored, and is offered here in fair condition.


Provenance

Found at York on 3 August 2025



~ Recorded with the British Museum (ref. PAS-YORYM-B13128; Treasure ref. 2025T991) ~



In the medieval period the term “carbuncle”, from the Latin carbunculus, “little glowing coal”, was applied to deep red gemstones cut en cabochon, most often garnet. Medieval lapidaries credited the carbuncle with the power to shine in darkness and to protect its wearer from harm, and such stones were set in rings, reliquaries and regalia throughout Europe.


Almandine garnet is so deeply coloured that a thick stone can appear almost black, and medieval lapidaries often hollowed the stone from beneath, as here, to thin it and let light pass through, bringing out its rich red. The stone would originally have been held in the high, closed-back bezel of the “pie-dish” form characteristic of fourteenth-century rings, its edge pressed over to secure it.


Cf. G. Egan and F. Pritchard, Dress Accessories c.1150-c.1450, London, 1991, p. 326, fig. 215; PAS CAM-A8B768 (Treasure 2016T201), LVPL-B7739A (2022T465), SF-1A1043 (2008T714) and SUR-F112EA (2020T857).

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Estimate
£800 to £1,000

Starting price
£650