Finger Ring
Unknown Artist
7th century
Medium
copper alloy
Dimensions
Overall: 7/8 x 7/16 in. (2.2 x 1.1 cm) bezel: 7/16 x 1/16 in. (1.1 x 0.1 cm)
Classification
Metalwork-Copper
Culture
Frankish
Department
Medieval Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
Accession Number
17.193.218
Art Historical Context
This delicate finger ring, crafted in the 7th from copper alloy, offers a glimpse into the daily lives of the Frankish people during the early Middle Ages. Measuring just 7/8 x 7/16 inches overall, with a slender bezel of 7/16 x 1/16 inches, its petite scale highlights the precision of Frankish metalworkers. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum Art's Medieval Art Department a gift from J.pont Morgan in 191, it exemplifies the era's metalwork traditions. The Franks, a Germanic tribe that dominated much of Western Europe under the Merovingian dynasty, produced such jewelry as personal ornaments an...