Jewellery, Watches, Silver & Objects of Vertu

A late 15th century gold iconographic Annunciation ring, the band of D-shaped cross section decorated to the exterior with diagonal lines of beading around the hoop, the rectangular flat bezel with convex sides, the opposing sides concave, to the right depicting the Virgin Mary crowned, to the left the Archangel Gabriel facing Mary, his right hand raised, between angled shoulders each with shield-shaped panels incised with a lily, the interior of the bezel engraved in black lettering ‘ma foy’ (my faith), diameter 21mm. £4,000-£5,000

This ring is from a UK collection, acquired from F. R. Cooper & Sons of Colchester in the 1970s.

The Annunciation scene was widely represented in Medieval art depicting the announcement to Mary by the angel Gabriel that she would conceive and bear a child, Jesus the Son of God. The lilies refer to the spiritual purity of the Virgin Mary.