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Updated: June 16, 2025
It is of gold, set with a sapphire; the sides of the ring are decorated with sprays and flowers on a ground of dark enamel; and inside is the motto “=en bon an=.” A very large ring, bearing great general resemblance to the episcopal ring, was occasionally worn as a thumb-ring by the laity.
These massive thumb-rings were indicative of wealth or importance, when worn by the middle classes who had obtained any municipal position. When Falstaff speaks of his slenderness in his youth, he declares that he could then have “crept through an alderman’s thumb-ring.” Like the massive gold chains still worn by that honourable fraternity, they told of a trader’s wealth.
In one corner a newly imported German with an Orson-like head, thumb-ring, and the fragrance of many meerschaums still hovering about him, was hammering away upon some disputed point with a scientific Frenchman, whose national politeness was only equalled by his national volubility.
The seal-ring of Mary, Queen of Scots, is in one of the cases; it must have been a thumb-ring, judging from its size, and it has a dark stone, engraved with armorial bearings. In another case is the magic glass formerly used by Dr. Doe, and in which, if I rightly remember, used to be seen prophetic visions or figures of persons and scenes at a distance.
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