Try to imagine a jewel that has the power to change people or their lives. Most of us will automatically think fiction - a fantasy novel or film. However throughout history the power of jewellery has been very real.
Some of this power was psychological. In medieval times travel could be truly terrifying - vast expanses of deep forest, dark nights without torchlight and the haunting sounds of the natural world. It was a time period full of fears, real and imagined.
People found strength and comfort in gemstones. The alluring combination or colour and translucence mined from the Earth seemed mystical and potent. Rings with sapphire, emerald, ruby and garnet, brought from India by traders, were genuinely believed to provide protection from evil and disaster.
In a sense the power of these medieval rings was real - it was how people found their courage and the strength to get out into the world or to let their loved ones go beyond their reach. Much of life is about winning the battles within and medieval jewellery achieved exactly that.
In a quite direct way, however, ancient jewellery had another very tangible power. It allowed people to touch and hold invisible things such as promises, ideas, kinship and feelings. Here are 4 times when jewellery shaped the world by bridging the invisible and visible world:
1) Oath Rings. In the 6th century AD kings were commonly called "ring-givers". They literally gave gold torcs or rings that bound people to their promise of fealty. Many of the swords from this time had a gold or silver gilt ring attached to the pommel, much like a wedding ring. These "ring swords" inspired Tolkien and may actually have influenced our tradition of wedding bands.
To understand this better, consider that for an Anglo-Saxon warrior in 550 AD, his sword was his path between life and death. He bonded with it as we might with a favourite animal. At death a warrior would be buried with his sword and it was, at times, also ceremonially shattered to mark this passing.
A gold ring through the pommel meant that the warrior/sword duo were irrevocably and physically attached to a third entity - the 'ring giver'. It was a way of making a promise tactile, incarnate and compelling. This was jewellery that had the power of life and death.
2) Stud Pendants. In the late medieval period it was common to wear a copper brooch or pendant - on your horse harness or on personal attire. These copper alloy brooches were decorated with bright enamel and usually displayed a coat-or-arms or some other significant heraldry.
The power of this jewellery was in its ability to indicate allegiance, kinship and alliances. To wear a stud pendant given by a particular nobleman was to be under his protection. It gave access and perhaps a right to hospitality in certain lands and helped a traveller hold on to their identity and community when travelling further afield.
One of the most poignant artefacts in the Kapistree collection is a 14th century Spanish Knight's pendant, found in Britain. It bears the arms of the kingdoms of Castile and Leon in gold and enamel. It is likely that the knight travelled to Britain to participate in a tournament, though Castile knights did also participate in the hundred years war (usually in the pay of France).
These arms would later become associated with the motto "Plus Ultra" or "further beyond" after the Queen Isabella of Castile funded Columbus' voyage to the Americas in 1492. The promontory at the straits of Gibraltar had a sign stating "non plus ultra", or "nothing further beyond", because this was the edge of the known world in antiquity.
We don't know how our Castile Knight lost his pendant or whether he returned from his travels to Britain, but this little piece of jewellery is a symbol of the spirit of adventure.
3) Roman Jewellery. A Roman woman's jewellery was considered to be her own property, separate from her husband's wealth. This gave her jewellery a unique power. She could buy, sell and barter with it.
Roman sources suggest that women associated their jewellery with personal dignity and empowerment. It was a form of independence and freedom. It's a little feminism that could be expressed by a man too when he chose to gift jewellery.
4) Posie rings. In the 15th century lovers would sometimes gift rings that bore a short engraved inscription. The inscription was usually in French and would describe a feeling or bond between the giver and recipient. There are posie rings that date back to the 12th century and the dawn of chivalry.
Over 3,000 inscriptions are recorded in the book "English Posies and Posy Rings", including phrases such as "Loyalty, not fear", "Well for him who knows whom he can trust", "'til death us part", and other oaths of virtue, love and fidelity.
To love someone with all your heart takes courage. This was a time where travel could last months or years and communication over distance was impossible. There's more than just romance in these inscriptions. There's desperation, passion, fear, jealousy and perhaps above all, hope. People wanted to possess something transcendent and meaningful in their life and jewellery was a way to touch and hold invisible bonds. It was a way to reach across distances.
If ever power could really be infused into a ring, try looking at some of these medieval bands and imagine the fervour of human spirit that has poured through them like electric. There's something immensely moving about jewellery that has been a lightning rod for the lives that passed before us.
This is jewellery that led to us, too. The unions and marriages of the 13th century are the lives that exist todays. As Philip Larkin, for once forgoing cynicism, observed, "What will remain of us is love."