Mourning Ring Honoring Anna Rogers Maker: Unknown
Honorand: Anna Foxcroft Rogers, American, 1723–1770

1770

American Decorative Arts

Not on view

Death’s-heads—skulls flanked by wings or swirls of foliage—appear on rings, gravestones, and other funereal objects as vivid symbols of mortality. This death’s-head ring commemorates Anna Rogers of Exeter, New Hampshire. Her husband, father, and father-in-law were ministers who would have been familiar with the tradition of marking deaths with gold rings. Rogers’s grandfather was John Coney, the leading silversmith working in Boston at the turn of the eighteenth century.

Medium

Gold

Dimensions

13/16 × 3/4 × 1/8 in. (2.1 × 1.9 × 0.3 cm)

Credit Line

Mabel Brady Garvan Collection

Accession Number

1930.4873

Geography

Made in New England

Culture

American

Period

18th century

Classification

Jewelry

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Francis P. Garvan (1875-1937), New York, New York; gift 1930 to Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
Bibliography
  • Kathryn C. Buhler and Graham Hood, American Silver in the Yale University Art Gallery, 2 vols. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1970), vol. 1, p. 311, no. 529
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

mourning rings

Marks

Unmarked

Inscriptions

"A Rogers bn(superscript) 2 June 23 ob 29 May 70 AE (conjoined) 46." engraved on inner surface of band.

Technical metadata and APIs

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