Rings with a discreet twin purpose have been in use since earlier than the common period, when Hannibal, facing additionaldition, allegedly ingested the poison he saved secreted behind a gemstone on his finger. (Newerly, poison rings gave rise to a popular Recreation of Thrones fan theory…)
Victorians prevented their most shutly saved secrets and techniques—illicit love letters, perhaps? Final wills and testaments?—from falling into the incorrect palms by put oning the keys to the fieldes containing this stuff concealed in signet rings and other statement-type items.
A tiny concealed blade may very well be deadly on the finger of a talented (and little doubt, beautiful) assassin. As of late, they is likely to be used to collect a bit of 1’s assaulter’s DNA.
Enter the fictional world of James Bond, and also you’ll discover a number of helpful dandy spy rings including one which doubles as a camperiod, and another capable of shattering bulletproof glass with a single twist.
Armillary sphere rings like those in the British Museum’s collection and the Swedish Historical Museum (high) serve a extra benign purpose. Folded together, the two-part outer hoop and three interior hoops give the illusion of a simple gold band. Slipped off the wearer’s finger, they will fan out right into a physical model of celestial longitude and latitude.
Artwork historian Jessica Stewartwork writes that within the seventeenth century, rings such because the above specimales had been “utilized by astronomers to review and make calculations. These items of jewelry had been considered tokens of knowledge. Inscriptions or zodiac symbols had been usually used as decorative elements on the bands.”
The armillary sphere rings within the British Museum’s collection are fabricated from a tender high-alloy gold.
Jewelry-loving modern astronomers searching an old-fashioned finger-based calculation device that actually works can order armillary sphere rings from Brooklyn-based designer Black Adept.
Word: An earlier version of this publish appeared on our web site in 2021.
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Behold the Astronomicum Caesareum, “Perhaps the Most Beautiful Scientific Guide Ever Printed” (1540)
Ayun Halliday is an writer, illustrator, theater maker and Chief Primatologist in New York Metropolis.
