Finger-Ring Lore

Everything a Victorian antiquary could gather about rings: betrothal and mourning, poison rings and papal rings, the superstitions attached to every stone, and the rings dug from the presumed site of Troy.

About the Book

1877Published
William JonesAuthor
56Chapters
265Pages on this site

William Jones, F.S.A., set out to write about ring superstitions and found so much else worth telling that Finger-Ring Lore (1877) became a general history: historical, legendary and anecdotal, as its subtitle promises.

Rings of investiture and of betrothal, posy rings with their inscribed mottoes, mourning rings, poison rings, the fisherman's ring of the popes, gimmal rings and thumb rings — each with the stories and beliefs attached to it.

This digital edition is built from a dual-engine OCR, reconciled page by page, with the original engravings.

This site reproduces the complete text of the original 1877 edition, digitized page by page from the original printing. The book is in the public domain.

Rights & ReuseThe complete text of Finger-Ring Lore (1877) is in the public domain in the United States — like all works published before 1928 — and is free to read, download, quote, teach from, and reuse. This digital edition (its transcription, restored images, and site design) is © 2026 PhotoOpAI, and any editorial commentary we add is clearly marked as ours; the underlying public-domain text carries no such restriction.