Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/383

 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE. 359 proposed by Mr. John Gough Nichols, that the ring, which is of a size suited for a lady's finger, might have been a betrothal or nuptial present ; the initials g. f). and a. m. being those of the two parties, the Arabic numerals indicating the date 1487, and the crown being merely ornamental, frequently used during the tifteenth century on seals, by persons not entitled by rank to assume such insignia. Several examples of this usage are supplied by seals, especially those from deeds in the custody of the corporation of Stratford on Avon, represented by Fisher'. The coronet with an initial letter, adopted as a device on the seals or signet rings of commoners, apjiears on numerous rings of the fifteenth century, as well as on seals appended to documents : of these last the seal of Robert Bingham, 1431, hereafter mentioned, is a good example. It ap- pears on another ring of later date, in Mr. Staunton's collection, of which a representation is here given. It is of base metal gilt, and was found in Coleshill church- yard, Warwickshire. The device appears to be a crown, placed upon a shaft, or truncheon, resting on a heart, in base, with the initials of the wearer, I G, at the sides. A curious example of a like use of crowned letters, not allusive to rank, is supplied by the altar-tomb in the church-yard at Foulsham, Norfolk, around which is the inscription, in large characters, each surmounted by a crown, EOBAKT COLLES CECiLi HIS viF*'. Blomefield states that this Robert Colles occurs as witness to a deed about 20 Hen. VII. On a small hexagonal seal of silver, of which Mr. Grant Francis has kindly supplied an impression, found in Kidwelly castle, 1845, appear the letters hox, under a crown. No interpretation of this device has been offered. An example, possibly to be admitted as analogous to Mr. Staunton's curious rirg in the use of numerals as a device, is found on a gold signet-ring stated to have been discovered in Hertfordshire, in the neighbourhood of Pinner, on which appear merely the letters Ii.V, which may, perhaps, be intended as Roman numerals. Mr. Staunton has recently added to his collection of antiquities relating to Warwickshire a small pendant reliquary, of oval shape, composed of a crystal, uncut, formed with a sharp central ridge, as the cahochons of crystal or imitative gems on reliquaries and other church-ornaments of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are not unfrequently fashioned. This forms the covering of a little box of silver, gilt, which opens with a hinge, the relic enclosed being shewn through the crystal. On the back, which is flat, is engraved the monogram i h s under a cross. It was found near Keniiworth castle in an old pasture-field, recently ploughed up. It measures about an inch in length. better explanation, but no instance lias after a numeral, letters appear above the bten noticed of the date of a year, thus line, denoting the termination of the word; abbrevia'td, as early as the fifteenth cen- in this manner the m may imply septeVH. tury. On the tradesmen's tokens of the ' Antiquities of Stratford, pi. iv. sixteenth, and in writings of the succeeding '' Engraved in Vetusta Monumtnta, century, dates occur thus expressed, and vol. i. plate xv.