Hello james william benson is my great great great grandfather on my mothers side please if you find any information would you be able to email me at chamberlain-davidATskyDOTcom as we are puting our family tree together if you wish for any info too you are more than welcome to contact me thank you
Rating
Crests | Fairbairn's Book of Crests. by: steve
Hi Aika,
What a handsome looking ring!
It may be the quality of the picture, but are you sure it's jade? If the stone is dark green with maybe some red flecks in it then it will be bloodstone, which was very popular for carving seals as it's so hard.
If you want to trace the crest, there is a book you can look at called Fairbairn's Book of Crests. Ask for it at the library - it has images of all the crests, but remember that as your ring would have been used for making an impression in wax, the image will be carved in reverse.
good hunting!
Rating
fish seal intaglio ring by: Anonymous
Hi
thank you for sending in your interesting "fishy" gold ring question. That really is an interesting seal ring, and I'm assuming you acquired it from Singapore?
You have described british hallmarks. The shield, (as there are not enough details provided) could be chester, exeter, newcastle, york, city marks, depending on what's inside the shield. Wheat sheaves and lions or wheat sheaves and a sword or castles within shields. That's why a photo of the mark is so important. Please See hallmark determination here.
Before we can attach a date to the date letter mark, which is the letter "q" we need to determine town mark, first and see the shape of the letter. You have to be quite meticulous.
Another possibility is, the marks could be colonial marks - i can recommend the following book with info on colonial marks,
"The Makers of Indian Colonial Silver", by Wynyard Wilkinson, 1987.
Concerning the crown mark, this is the gold purity mark, a crown followed by number 18 appears on UK 18ct gold ca 1798 - 1974
A cameo is the name for a relief which is cut so that it is raised. An Intaglio is the name for engraving with negative image, as used for seals.
An Intriguing intaglio seal ring - interesting to know the meaning of this, an intaglio is an inverse carving into stone or other material. often confused with a cameo.
