Antique jewelry glossary

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Snake ring
or serpent ring

See our: serpent jewelry.

A type of finger ring made in the form of a coiled snake, spiralling upward from the tail in three coils around the finger and terminating with the head at the top. Examples is gold, with the body having appropriate snakeskin markings, were made in Hellenistic jewelry.

Later examples, usually with the snake tightly coiled and sometimes having a gemstone set in each eye, were worn during the Renaissance and later, especially in the Victorian era (sometimes as a mourning ring). Sometimes called a 'serpent ring'.

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