Dear Friends,
Here is an unusual item, an ancient
Roman glass finger ring, dating to the 1st century AD. It is in imitation of a metal ring with a
gem set in a bezel; the shank is of purple
glass, the bezel is of yellow
glass and the "
gem" is of orange
glass. Cracks appear on either
side of the bezel where it meets the shank. Many, if not most of these
rings did not survive
antiquity and I doubt if they were meant to do so.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York City has at least two, but both shanks are of amber
glass (See: Acquisition Numbers 17.194.345 and 17.194.346).
The British Museum has a lovely
collection of
glass rings, see Marshall, F.H.
Catalogue of the Finger
Rings Greek, Etruscan &
Roman in the Departments of
Antiquities British Museum,
London, 1907 (re-printed 1968): pp. 229 to 234, Numbers 1561 to 1598.
