81 - ANGLO-NORMAN MEDIEVAL GOLD AND GARNET RING WITH INSCRIPTION

ANGLO-NORMAN MEDIEVAL GOLD AND GARNET RING WITH INSCRIPTION WESTERN EUROPE, C. LATE 14TH - 15TH CENTURY gold ring set with a garnet or spinel, the interior of the band inscribed: + Honor + et + lyec + translates as “Honour and Joy” (given as the medieval synonym liesse) UK: I, US: 4¾ Provenance: Acquired by Stanley J. Seeger (1930–2011); Thence by descent. Chivalric inscriptions in French on the inner surfaces of rings were commonly found on medieval British examples, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries, when the tradition of courtly love was at its most prominent in Western Europe. Such objects have become known as posy rings, a term derived from poesy, referring to the short poetic verses with which they were inscribed. It is therefore believed that these rings were often exchanged as tokens of love, conveying intimate or secret messages intended to remain close to the wearer. In the present example, the spelling “lyec”, as a variation of “liesse”, may represent a phonetic rendering of the word by the craftsman, or simply reflect a period in which spelling conventions had yet to become standardised.