Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?

Victorian Ring With Shell Cameo Shakespeares, 1860s

€ 489.00 ^*

Content 1 piece

Unit price €489.00 / piece

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Victorian Ring With Shell Cameo Shakespeares, 1860s

Description

This description was automatically translated from German. If you have any questions about this piece of jewellery, we will be happy to help!

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" Thus begins William Shakespeare's (1564-1616) probably most famous poem, which as Sonnet XVIII was dedicated to a recipient unknown to us today. Many legends and conjectures entwine around this declaration of love in verse form, which can still send a shiver down the spine of the sensitive soul today. And just as the inclined reader today, the 19th century could not escape Shakespeare. Never before was the poet from Stratford-upon-Avon translated and interpreted more often, never were his works staged more often than in Victorian times. Shakespeare became a national hero, the voice of the English nation in the Elizabethan era. So it is not surprising to see here now a gentleman's ring holding an ideal likeness of Shakespeare. Cut into shell, the bust stands out white against the carnelian background. But how did one know what Shakespeare really looked like? The depiction follows the so-called Chandos Portrait, set in profile due to the medium of the cameo. The Chandos Portrait was probably painted between 1600 and 1610. It is named after the former owner of the painting James Brydges, 3rd Duke of Chandos. The portrait was given to the National Portrait Gallery in London in 1856 and is listed as the first acquisition of that collection. So it can be assumed that our ring was made after the painting was discovered, we date it to the 1860s. An elaborately engraved setting is made of a light gold doublé, i.e. a sheet of gold filled with a base material similar to the foamed gold of the Biedermeier period.