Jewellery, Watches, Silver and Objects of Vertu

A fine 15th century gold seal ring, the stretched octagonal flat bezel engraved with a Popinjay or Parrot perched on a branch, a foliate sprig behind and the black letters, possibly ‘I + d’ above, a recessed ladder border surrounding the bezel., the shoulders each decorated with foliage within a tapered rectilinear panel, to a plain hoop of D-section, ring size Q. £4,000-£6,000

The ring was purchased in the Burlington Arcade, London in 1992.

The term Popinjay originates from the Old French word ‘papinjay’ meaning parrot. The bird was associated with courage and wisdom in the Middle East during the crusades, and in Europe with moral and sexual purity, and chivalric virtue in relation to the Virgin Mary. During the late Medieval period, crowned popinjays appear as pewter badges with a rhyming exclamation ‘Papege iollys may’ (popinjay, jolly May!), the month of May being regarded as the month of Love. A song printed in Paris circa 1515-25 has the words ‘le jolis moys de may vert come ung papegey, amoreux, gracieux’ (‘The lovely month of May, green as a Popinjay, loving, gracious’).