Antique jewelry glossary

Welcome to our extensive antique jewelry glossary with around 1,500 jewelry related entries.If you feel you are missing an explanation, feel free to let us know and we will add it.

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Scarab ring
(1)

A type of finger ring made in ancient Egypt, and in Phoenicia, Greece, and Etruria, with an ornament in the form of a scarab. Such rings were made in several forms: 1. The ring was a stirrup-shaped hoop with flattened pierced ends and a scarab was attached by a wire run through it so that the scarab could revolve when worn on a finger, with the underside (engraved with the name or device of the owner) turned up when to be used as a seal and the beetle side up when worn as an ornament.

Scarab ring
(2)

A non-swivelling type, with the outside of the ring of the same stirrup shape and set with a scarab, but the inside circular to fit the finger; some such rings were made of two hoops united at the top and having cut on the long oblong bezel the name and titles, in hieroglyphs, of the owner.

Scarab ring
(3)

A circular type, similar to a modern signet ring, with an engraved scarab.

From: An Illustrated Dictionary of Jewelry, autor: Harold Newman, publishers: Thames and Hudson