ceding
reign. Thus Bachaument, in his " Mémoires Secrets," states that at the
sale of Mlle, de BeauvoishVs jewels, which took place November 22,
1784, there were 200 rings rivalling one another in magnificence.
Another French author of this time, M. Mercier, wrote in 1782 " when
one takes the hand of a pretty woman, one only has the sensation of
holding a quantity of rings and angular stones, and it would be
necessary first to strip these off the hand before we could perceive
its form and delicacy."
The
enthusiasm of the early days of the Revolution brought into vogue rings
set with a little fragment of the stone-work of the recently demolished
Bastille; at the same time wedding-rings were enamelled in red, white
and blue, the new Republican colors. At the outset the young
royalists, as a protest, wore rings of tortoise-shell, with the motto,
Domine salvum fac regem, " God save the King."
A
type of ring that became popular during the darkest days of the French
Revolution, the period of the dreadful Reign of Terror, was that of a
large silver hoop with a plain gold bezel on which was graven the head
of some one of the leading spirits of the time, such as Marat, De
Chalier, or De Lepelletier St.-Fargeau.
There are several significant French proverbs regarding rings, of which we may here note the following: "Ne mets pas ton doigt en anneau trop étroit" (Do not put your finger in too small a ring) ; "Anneau en main, honneur vain" (A ring on the finger is an empty honor) ; "Bague d'amie porte envie" ( The ring of a lady friend arouses envy).
Portrait
rings were very popular at the time of the French Revolution, as they
afforded an opportunity for the expression of the ardent devotion to
particular per-
