wedding ring?

Re wedding ring wearing? My new book by John Ashdown-Hill has a cover illustration of a portrait of Richard either putting on or taking off a gold wedding band. It is supposed to represent Richard back on the marriage market after Anne`s death. My question is, was the wearing of a wedding band by men of that era a traditional practice? With their hard life whether warrior or farmer, it seems hand jewelry would interfere with daily activities. What was the wedding band practice of that time? Carol D.

The portrait shows Richard pulling (or putting) the ring on his little finger. Is that where wedding rings were worn at that time? When did the "ring finger" become well, the ring finger?IB

Sent from my iPad

On Feb 13, 2013, at 9:32 PM, Carol Darling <cdarlingart1@...> wrote:

> Re wedding ring wearing? My new book by John Ashdown-Hill has a cover illustration of a portrait of Richard either putting on or taking off a gold wedding band. It is supposed to represent Richard back on the marriage market after Anne`s death. My question is, was the wearing of a wedding band by men of that era a traditional practice? With their hard life whether warrior or farmer, it seems hand jewelry would interfere with daily activities. What was the wedding band practice of that time? Carol D.
>
>

Reply to Ishita: You are wrong. Richard in the book cover illustration is putting on or off a very solid gold wedding band on his third or major ring finger. Visible in the same illustration is a pinky ring, already in place on his little finger. So I assumed the big ring in motion, is a wedding band. Carol D.

Ishita, the wedding ring was normally worn on the right hand, as it is now in Europe. It was I believe our fat friend who changed it as yet another break with catholic traditions.  Correct me if I'm wrong folks.  H



________________________________
From: Ishita Bandyo <bandyoi@...>
To: "" <>
Sent: Thursday, 14 February 2013, 3:18
Subject: Re: wedding ring?


 

The portrait shows Richard pulling (or putting) the ring on his little finger. Is that where wedding rings were worn at that time? When did the "ring finger" become well, the ring finger?IB

Sent from my iPad

On Feb 13, 2013, at 9:32 PM, Carol Darling mailto:cdarlingart1%40mac.com> wrote:

> Re wedding ring wearing? My new book by John Ashdown-Hill has a cover illustration of a portrait of Richard either putting on or taking off a gold wedding band. It is supposed to represent Richard back on the marriage market after Anne`s death. My question is, was the wearing of a wedding band by men of that era a traditional practice? With their hard life whether warrior or farmer, it seems hand jewelry would interfere with daily activities. What was the wedding band practice of that time? Carol D.
>
>

I don't know whether you've looked at the stuff on the 1991 R3 exhibition in London (I think they have it on the R3 site or you can find it by googling). There's some good stuff there by Pamela Tudor-Craig - her of the recent programme, about the royal portraits. It's under the bit called 'I looked on Richard's face) It's well worth reading and, I think, hints that R's portrait was one of a pair with Anne, just as E4's was one of a pair with EW. Where that lost portrait is who knows? I live in hope. H.  



________________________________
From: Ishita Bandyo <bandyoi@...>
To: "" <>
Sent: Thursday, 14 February 2013, 3:18
Subject: Re: wedding ring?


 

The portrait shows Richard pulling (or putting) the ring on his little finger. Is that where wedding rings were worn at that time? When did the "ring finger" become well, the ring finger?IB

Sent from my iPad

On Feb 13, 2013, at 9:32 PM, Carol Darling mailto:cdarlingart1%40mac.com> wrote:

> Re wedding ring wearing? My new book by John Ashdown-Hill has a cover illustration of a portrait of Richard either putting on or taking off a gold wedding band. It is supposed to represent Richard back on the marriage market after Anne`s death. My question is, was the wearing of a wedding band by men of that era a traditional practice? With their hard life whether warrior or farmer, it seems hand jewelry would interfere with daily activities. What was the wedding band practice of that time? Carol D.
>
>

So you are not talking about the NPG portrait? I thought that's the one. Which particular portrait is this one?


Ishita Bandyo
www.ishitabandyo.com
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www.ishitabandyoarts.blogspot.com

On Feb 13, 2013, at 11:04 PM, Carol Darling <cdarlingart1@...> wrote:

> Reply to Ishita: You are wrong. Richard in the book cover illustration is putting on or off a very solid gold wedding band on his third or major ring finger. Visible in the same illustration is a pinky ring, already in place on his little finger. So I assumed the big ring in motion, is a wedding band. Carol D.
>
>

Ishita Bandyo wrote:
>
> So you are not talking about the NPG portrait? I thought that's the one. Which particular portrait is this one?

Carol responds:

They're talking about the cover of John Ashdown-Hill's book, which shows the earlier Society of Antiquaries portrait. Both are copies of a lost original (or maybe two since the clothing is different, the finger on which the ring is being placed is different, and they face in opposite directions).

If the S of A portrait was originally one of a pair with him facing a lost portrait of Anne, he would have been on the right.

For comparison, here's NPG:

http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw05304/King-Richard-III

Here's the S of A portrait as depicted on the cover of J A-H's book and as it's usually shown:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Days-Richard-III/dp/0752454048 (click for a larger image)

http://www.sal.org.uk/museum/paintings/235455.jpg/photoalbum_photo_view?b_start=23 (oddly, they're showing it before it was cleaned)

You'll also find this article of interest. Note the SoA portrait before and after it was cleaned (scroll down):

http://www.richardiii.net/2_4_0_riii_appearance.php#portrait

I think the view of which portrait was more true to life needs to be changed now that we've seen the facial restoration. Age aside, he looks more like the NPG portrait. Which finger he was putting a ring on and how he was really dressed in the lost original (if there was only one) can't be determined. It used to be thought that in the NPG portrait, he was putting on a mourning ring.

BTW, everyone, if you've bookmarked articles from the old website, you'll need to search them out again on the new site and re-bookmark them as the old links no longer work and there's no link to the new page, as I found when I was searching for this one.

Carol