Carved Fluorite Dress Ring, Property of Dame Edith Sitwell DBE, Chinese, 19th Century
On the long gothic fingers of Dame Edith Sitwell — a carved fluorite ring of 19th-century Chinese workmanship, worn by the poet who said "I feel very undressed without my rings."
ARTIST: Unknown, Chinese
PERIOD: 19th Century, Qing Dynasty
CATEGORY: Jewelry / Decorative Object
MATERIALS: Carved fluorite, silver-colored wire frame
DIMENSIONS: Finger size J; 38.5g gross
PROVENANCE: Dame Edith Sitwell DBE (1887–1964); thence by descent, Weston Hall, Northamptonshire; sold Dreweatts, Weston Hall and the Sitwells: A Family Legacy, November 2021
EXHIBITED: National Portrait Gallery, London, 1994, The Sitwells and the Arts of the 1920s and 1930s, p. 151, cat. 4.40
CONTEXT: Among Edith's jewellery in the Dreweatts sale was this carved fluorite dress ring featuring two mythical beasts, described by the National Portrait Gallery in the 1994 exhibition as of 19th-century Chinese workmanship and believed to have been in Edith's possession by 1950. Sitwell's circle included some of the 20th century's greatest creatives — Siegfried Sassoon, Cecil Beaton, Aubrey Beardsley, Rex Whistler and Evelyn Waugh — and her jewels were as famous as her poetry. She was considered an improbable and anachronistic fashion icon, frequently photographed bristling with gigantic aquamarine rings, at least two to a finger, and plastered with vast brooches of semi-precious stones. The two carved fluorite mythical beasts — once joined, now set separately in their silver wire frame — retain the presence of objects that have been worn with intention by someone who understood exactly what she was wearing and why. Dame Edith Sitwell left the majority of her rings to the Victoria and Albert Museum, where they are prominently displayed amongst the historic fine jewelry. This ring did not go to the V&A. It went to Weston Hall, and from there into the world.
CONDITION: The two mythical beasts were once joined and are now set separately. Chips to ears and extremities; some fractures to stones; setting shows wear and tarnishing commensurate with age and use.