DAY 25 - THROWBACK THURSDAY

April Showers 30 Days of Digital Delights

For this # TBT Les Enluminures will present you a 13.75 grams of love, tragedies and preciousness.

When worn on the finger this Renaissance ring (formerly Les Enluminures, now Griffin Collection) shows a beautiful bezel incorporating a table-cut diamond and a red ruby. But looking closely, you may notice that the ring is composed of two hoops. It’s what’s called a Gimmel ring (from Latin gemellus, twin), often used as a betrothal ring in the sixteenth century.

When you open the ring you enter into a much more personal story… the story of Jacob Sigmund von der Sachsen, the son of an important town councilor in Erfurt who was married in 1631, at the age of 24, to Martha Wurmin and died a young man just two years later. The other side of the ring reveals, as a quirk of fate, the destiny of the owner. Two secret little chambers, holding a curled-up infant and a skeleton in the same position offer us a message of Memento mori, associating the beginning with the end of life.

It is very rare to be able to link an ancient ring with the name and personal stories of their owner but that’s just the beginning of the story.

The preciousness of this ring was realized by Baron Maurice Edmond Karl de Rothschild (1881- 1957) a collector of exquisite taste from one of the wealthiest families of collectors.

As part of his collection, it was seized by the Nazis in 1940, along with the finest art privately owned by Jewish families.

Stored at the Jeu de Paume in Paris (R 2123), it was recorded by the brave Rose Valland, member of the French Resistance, who secretly kept track of which artworks were sent to Germany and where.

After the war, the ring was restituted to the Rothschild family thanks to the “Monuments Men” (and women).

The ring was then purchased by the Zucker Family and loaned to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore from 1985 to 2013. Successively purchased through Les Enluminures by another distinguished private collector “the Griffin Collection”, in 2015 the ring was part of the "Treasures and Talismans” exhibition, held at The Cloisters Museum, MET, New York.

Les Enluminures is very proud to have had a little part to play in the story of such a fantastic ring!

Further reading:
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/667863

Nicholas, Lynn H. The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War. New York: Viking Press, 1980.

Edsel, Robert M., and Bret Witter. The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History. New York: Center Street, 2009.

https://www.rosevalland.com/

Gaia Grizzi

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