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Tège Helldovicuni. Imperatorem

From the reign of Hugh Capet each King had his particular seal-ring. St. Louis had for device a ring interlaced with a garland of lilies and daisies, in allusion to his name and that of his queen.

Two curious rings of early date are here represented : one a seal-ring of the Frankish period, found near Allonnes (Sarthe) bearing the monogram Lanoberga; the other, of gold, Merovingian, found in Vitry-le-Français, supposed to be a conjugal ring, with inscription.

BAKUL HARICY அ Frankish period.

Merovingian.

The annexed illustration represents a gold ring, in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, with the initials s. R., and Merovingian. supposed by the Abbé Cochet ('La Normandie Souterraine') to mean 'Sigebertus Rex,' but which of the three Sigeberts, Kings of Austrasia (the name given, under the Merovingians, to the eastern possessions of the Franks), cannot be conjectured.

To a similar period may, perhaps, be ascribed the ring found near Blois, represented in the following engraving :- Merovingian.

The annexed cuts represent a gold signet-ring, inscribed 'Heva,' and a seal-ring, both of the Merovingian period. HEVA Merovingian.

A remarkable ring of the Merovingian period, now in the collection of R. H. Soden Smith, Esq., F.S.A., was exhibited at the Archæological Institute in 1874. It is a massive gold ring, with oval bezel 14 inches long, by 1 inch in width, set with an antique polished chalcedony of two layers, the edges bevelled. The setting is rather more than a quarter of an inch deep, and is formed of a band of gold, supported by perpendicular ridges, made by folding another thick band, or ribbon, of gold; a double row of pellets of gold, and others on the shoulder of the hoop, add to the rich effect of the whole. The hoop is a somewhat rude angular band,