Jewellery

A Medieval gold ring set with a possible toadstone, 14th-16th century, the circular bezel set with a round stone with white cabochon centre within a grey border, the stone collet set, the underside of the bezel with incised flowerhead detail, between trifurcating scrolled shoulders, ring size K. £1,500-£2,000 --- This ring was discovered in Stinsford in West Dorset. The ring is recorded on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database, Ref: SOM-D01838, and has subsequently been disclaimed as Treasure. Lapidaries (i.e. texts that describes the physical properties and virtues of precious and semi-precious stones) were very popular in the Middle Ages when belief that gems held various powers was widely held. Included within these lapidaries, were a few non-mineral items and these included crampodine, or ‘toadstone’. The ‘toadstone’ is round and brownish, and is in fact the palate tooth of a fossilised shark known as Lepidotus. Literary references to toadstones appear from the 12th century when it was believed that the toad, whose breath was venomous, had within its head a stone which was an antidote to poison. The story relates that the toad should be placed on a red cloth and this would cause him to belch forth the stone from its head - the stone should be quickly whipped away before the toad could attempt to reclaim it. Charles Oman of the British Museum, referring to toadstones mounted in rings explained: “Extant examples do not date before the middle of the fourteenth century, but belief in their efficacy survived well into the seventeenth century, though descriptions of techniques for testing doubtful specimens suggest the gradual growth of scepticism. The toadstone was the best known of the substances which were credited with curative or protective powers. It is frequently difficult to identify both the material or the supposed efficacy of some rings which are obviously magical.” Literature: Oman, C., British Rings 800-1914, (B.T. Batsford Ltd, London, 1974)