FUN RINGS
Wheareas the 17th century wedding and love rings have a more serious character, the 18th century rings are much less so. They make fun of the wedding ring.
“Buy a wedding ring? No sir, I thank you kindly, that’s a toy I never design to play with. Tis is the most dangerous piece of goods in your whole shop. People are perpetually doing themselves a mischief with it. They hand themselves separately to get loose again.”
And fun rings include those with symbols like rabbit…haha
HEART MOTIF
The heart was by far the most popular motif -not only double as in alliance but single, crowned, pierced by arrows, aflame and tied with a lover’s knot, or with a diamond key attached. To emphasize the symbolism some had mottoes round the hoop such a A PLEDGE OF MY LOVE.
HAIR
The ring is sometimes interestingly attached with hair of a beloved, like a father’s or a granddaughter’s. The hair can be either attached to the top of the pendant woven into a pattern or inserted round the hoop depending on the designer.
this is really new…
Rings in large scale
In the 1770s, a new type of long ring emerged, made to large scale which was then in fashion. And thus providing space for tableaux of women in classical dress writing love letters. The pictures in the ring are the narratives and they tell a certain love story.
Eg. Lamenting the departure of a lover as a ship sails away from the shore
