50 - A GEORGIAN ENAMEL AND SEED PEARL MOURNING RING TO SARAH CRANG (D. 1806)

A GEORGIAN ENAMEL AND SEED PEARL MOURNING RING TO SARAH CRANG (D. 1806) CIRCA 1806 The oval head with a border of split pearls, formerly with two woven-hair panels, one now set with a semi-circular panel of turquoise-blue guilloché enamel, the other vacant. On a fluted shank with split shoulders. The reverse engraved 'S Crang, Obt 10 Feby 1806'. Tests as gold Unmarked Size/dimensions: ring size P (US 8) Gross weight: 4.09g All split pearls are present, well matched and secure, and the remaining enamel is in good condition, but one panel is now vacant. The metal shows signs of wear consistent with use and a dark patina throughout, and the ring is offered in fair condition but could be restored. Sarah Crang (1770-1806) The ring almost certainly commemorates Sarah Crang, eldest daughter of William Crang and his wife Sarah, who was baptised at Dunster, Somerset, on 8 December 1770 and died in February 1806 at the age of 35. She is recorded on a marble memorial to the Crang family in St Mary’s Church, Timsbury, which records three generations: her grandparents, John Crang (d. 1789) and his wife Mary (d. 1808); their children, among them the Rev. James Crang, B.A., who died in 1779 aged just 24; and several grandchildren who died in childhood. The memorial gives Sarah’s date of death as 11 February 1806, one day later than the date engraved on the ring. Since the memorial was completed some twenty years after her death, the ring, made in the weeks following her death, may well preserve the more accurate date. Originally from North Devon, the Crangs were established in Timsbury by the middle of the eighteenth century, while Sarah’s father William raised his young family at Dunster on the edge of Exmoor. In 1791 William and his brother John were among the Timsbury Coal Proprietors, a partnership that opened new and deeper pits in the area. It has been described as the greatest coal mining partnership in the development of the Somerset Coalfield, and in the following century its mines became the largest suppliers of coal to Bath. The family remained in Timsbury until 1902, and several generations practised as apothecaries and surgeons in the district.