Featured Do museums polish their ancient (medieval in this case) gold?

In 2022 I bought three medieval gold rings, all ground finds I suppose. This is one of them:

I really appreciate how 'dull' that gold is - giving a high saturation colour and a well-aged look. But I noticed those Medieval rings in museums like V&A are usually high polished, like these ones:
I once visited a dealer who also has some polished ancient rings. I assume they were all ground finds, not passed down by generations, so do museums polish them when they got them?

 

Museums clean them, often a very finnicky job. After gold is cleaned, it will look fine for a very long time and won't have to be polished.

Your ring is a beauty.
But it is always best to ask a seller for provenance instead of having to guess. (And not know if it is a legal sale.)

 

I don't know... But I highly prefer the patina on yours!!!

 

So do I. And the colour too. It is either a higher fineness than those museum rings, or it has more copper in the gold alloy. Or both.

 

It's bought from a decent antique dealer in london, I think it should be fine? It's sourced from Europe if I remember correct

 

Agree looks like it's naturally grown from the earth. And patina makes it more like pure gold. Another ring of mine is not that bright though, that one might has less gold in it

 

btw do you have different opinions on the dating of my ring? Sold to me as 14th century, seems reasonable as it looks like a simplified version of high renaissance ring, i.e. quatrefoil setting and enameling

 

Seems totally legit Renaissance ring to my eye
(Not that I own any, but saw them in my books and in museums)

 

I absolutely agree. Very nice ring. The ‘dull’ look really presents much better and makes is look ‘historic’

 

Wow,I wouldn’t know. But that’s very impressive. I would like to own something so old! Just to imagine the history of such a item!

 

Ditto.

Ditto.