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Rings from the Earliest Period: Italian

Rings of Italian workmanship of a late period are remarkably beautiful. Venice particularly excelled in this art. In the Londesborough Collection is a fine specimen. Venetian.

Italian diamond ring.

The four claws of the other ring in open-work, support the setting of a sharply-pointed pyramidal diamond, such as was then coveted for writing on glass. The shank bears a fanciful resemblance to a serpent swallowing a bird, of which only the claws connecting the face remain on view. 6 'It was,' remarks Mr. Fairholt, with a similar ring Raleigh wrote the words on a window-pane : "Fain would I rise, but that I fear to fall," to which Queen Elizabeth added: "If thy heart fail thee, do not rise at all"-an implied encouragement which led him on to fortune.' 1 The annexed engraving represents a gold symbolical ring of the sixteenth century, enamelled, of various colours.

Italian.

Two rings are described by Mr. Fairholt of a peculiar construction. One, of Venice work, is set with three stones in raised bezels; to their bases are affixed, by a swivel, gold pendant ornaments, each set with a garnet. As the hand moves, these pendants fall about the finger, the stones glittering in the movement. This fashion was evidently borrowed from the East, where people delight in pendant ornaments, and even affix them to articles of utility. The other ring, of silver, is of East Indian workmanship, There is the well-known anecdote of Francis the First, who, in order to let the Duchess d'Estampes know that he was jealous, wrote with a diamond these lines on a pane of glass, 'which,' says Le Vieil, in his 'Peinture sur Verre,' 'may be still seen in the Château Chambord':- Souvent femme varie, Mal habil qui s'y fie.