Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/368

 310 ROMAN KEY-LIKE FINGER KINU OF GOLD, AND ward passage of such a tongue as diat upon Mr. Frauks's ring. In the collection ot" Lord Braybrooke is a finger ring of mixed metal, " similar to that of many of the Roman denarii," with a broad tablet bezel on which a lion passant is repre- sented in high relief, and gilt. Thence projects a tongue or flap, but not hinged, rounded at the end and " incuse " with iigures, which may represent a central vase, on either side of which a bear is seated, facing his fellow. Seven minute Iioles open between the vase and the limbs of the bears, which have been supposed to have some reference to the rieiades. It was found in December 1853, in the Borough field, Chesterford, with Roman remains. Here ve have the openings in the tongue (doubtless somewhat filled in by the oxydation of the metal), which also is affixed to the lioop in its entire breadth. In the Museum at Basle, Mr Franks informs me that there is another ring of the same class, of gold, with the inscription felic. avrou. worked in niello on the bezel, from which projects a tongue ot" pierced work formed as two eagles, with some object between them. It was found at Augst, and may be of the Merovingian period. Both these examples would be equally impracticable as latch-lifting keys. Considerabl}'^ modified, but partaking of the same character as to form, is the well-known ring in the British Museum, bearing in niello the name of Ethelwulf (a.d. 836-838), the father of Alfred the Croat, the pyramidal projecting tongue of which is ornamented with eagles on either side of a central standard. This i-iiig is also figure<l in the Arcluco- logical Journal in a jcijkt on Niello by Mr. W'aterton, vol. xix., p. 32G. May wo not, therefore, infer that these rings were fashioned, not for practical pur])Oses, but as representative of their earlier, as also contemporary, and more useful proto- ty{)es, and jwssibly emblcniatic of that office or position in the household or the I'amily, which entitle«l the holder to the j;o.sHession of tlic key-ring 'i Or were they merely eccentric devclojdiients of antifpie fancy, of which we have abundant parallel instances in onv own day ? Another form of ringed key, which in the smaller examples became, and was j)rob.'ibIy worn as a key-ring, of later date