Featured 18th Century Carnival Mask Ring

When it comes to the Renaissance, think you might as easily have found one on a man's finger. And ones given to women in any period pretty likely to have been designed by men. Hard to say where any weirdness lies.

 

Hmmmmm, i am betting this is a female originated custom/fad, it has all the hallmarks, intrigue, mysterious, romance, bla bla bla.........
Not to mention, JEWELRY!

 

There have always been theories about what they contained,I don't know if anyone has found any with poison remnants. see link

http://4cs.gia.edu/en-us/blog/murky-history-poison-rings/

 

I think its fabulous,and Id wear the heck out of it but I bet its TINY! Nobody could wear my grandmas rings after she died,and my mom has tiny fingers ! Nobody can wear my moms rings for that matter!LOL!

 

Great looking ring and not risque for the time frame at all. Super!!

 

Why is this risque?

It could have been. You might have flipped up that cover and discovered an enameled scene of an amorous couple.

 

Yeah, i think that's correct. In reading some of the links about them, interesting that men & women had a difficult time engaging one another without being formally introduced in this era. Indeed, those masked balls & social events offered men & women a way to mix & mingle on an equal basis behind masks that was not possible in other settings. Very sweet in a way.

 

They are not, that was just my first reaction on seeing it this morning roll by on my twitter feed. These rings were just a part of social interaction by people in a totally different era which i had no clue about. I didn't know either that they are HIGHLY collectable today but now that i have learned a bit about them, i can see why.

 

There was plenty of pornography in the 18th C and down through history. Some of the frescoes from Pompeii are very graphic.

There's a story of a man who had a snuff box set on top with an agate. He would show it to his friends by the light of a fire, and the agate would slowly disappear to reveal an enameled sex scene. The secret was that the agate was very thinly sliced and a layer of fat was sandwiched between it and the image. The heat from the fire caused the fat to melt and reveal the picture.

 

Great link Holly!

 

Exactly! That name became very popular because of Lucrezia Borgia, who allegedly abused a perfectly good ring. But the rings were mostly used for keepsakes, as you said. In many cultures they were used to keep amulets or special herbs or cloves, like besamim rings.

 

The 18th century is pre-Victorian. Before Victoria men and women had not nearly as much difficulty making contact or interacting as during the Victorian era. And Victorian moral fashions did not necessarily apply outside the British influenced world.

 

Yeah but, during the Victorian era the "sun never set on the British empire" and all that! Not sure that was true but probably close to being true.

 

Still, i argue that women absolutely control how men & women interact with one another, they are tricky that way, very tricky! They been tricking poor ol' dad over here for years!

 

That was true for many empires, remember, most western European countries had colonies and protectorates around the globe. The term had already been used for the empire of our Low Countries king Charles V, who became known as Spain's king Charles I. He was born in Gent, present day Belgium, in 1500.
Victorian England's restrictive moral rules didn't even reach as far as the Scottish Highlands. Non-English speaking countries, some with their own 'never setting sun empires', were even less impressed by those funny English.

 

Didn't you hear about Me Too?
I am sorry you have been tricked, but sadly that happens to most of us. You can't blame it on women in general, just on the women who have tricked you. Just like women can blame it on the men who tricked them.
All women can tell you stories about the tricks some men play and the control many men have, not just over interaction between the sexes, but over women in general. Many women are abused and even killed by men who blame women for being controlling, deceptive, treacherous, and whatever else they think of to escape accountability. In truth it is the abusive men who are controlling, deceptive and treacherous.

 

Yeah I've heard about it, you hear little else in USA these days, a bunch of Hollywood hypocrites whining about bad men, problem is, most of the women in tinsel town are bad too! Generally speaking, i would say this not how most men & women interact with one another and hollywood presents an artificial view of life in general.

 

In a BBC radio feature on Simone de Beauvoir, was very surprised to hear that when Sartre arranged 'an appointment' with her, to meet her socially rather than academically, she felt so strongly that she could not carry through without having been introduced to him first, she sent her sister in her stead, telling her she would recognize Sartre as an ugly man with glasses. There were 2 who fit that description, but it all, famously, got sorted.

 

Hi JC, I think the ring is really interesting. Masquerade Balls appear to have started in the 13th century and continued strongly into the 18th and 19th century in Europe and even into "Colonial America". Venice was the centre of masked balls in the 18th century. Could this be part of the inspiration for the ring?

 

I have no idea, I didn't even know these rings existed prior to running across this one.