Ring
Mourning jewelry—jewelry that commemorates the dead—was commonly commissioned by early American colonists upon the loss of friends or loved ones. Around the band of this ring, gold letters set against a black enamel ground memorialize the deceased, Sarah Rawson, "S: RAWSON OB: 7 JULY 1757 AE 26." Sarah was survived by a young daughter, Sarah, and her husband, Eliot Rawson, a Middletown, Connecticut, doctor who was a great-grandson of Edward Rawson, Secretary of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. At the center of the ring is a bezel containing a coffin-shaped piece of cut crystal, through which an image of a white skeleton against a dark ground is visible While mourning rings featuring memento mori symbols, such as coffins, skeletons, or hourglasses, were popular through the mid-eighteenth century, later more euphemistic imagery, such as weeping willow trees and draped urns, became favored iconographical motifs in mourning jewelry.
Artwork Details
- Title: Ring
- Date: 1757
- Geography: Possibly made in Connecticut, United States
- Culture: American
- Medium: Gold, enamel, crystal, ink on bone
- Dimensions: Diam. 3/4 in. (1.9 cm)
- Credit Line: Purchase, Friends of the American Wing Fund, 2024
- Object Number: 2024.222
- Curatorial Department: The American Wing
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