Mastery of Design: A Mourning Ring for Matthew Arnold, 1742

Mourning Ring
Enamel, Rose-Cut Diamonds and Gold
England, 1742
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This attractive mourning ring, enameled in white, was made to commemorate the death of a baby, Matthew Arnold, who died at the age of eight months in 1742. The use of white enamel, rather than black, generally denotes that the piece was made as a memorial for a child, a spinster or a bachelor.  This example is set with rose-cut diamonds.

So, who was this child?  Matthew Arnold was possibly the son of Matthew Arnold, Sr. (born in 1711) and his wife Charity. The senior Matthew was a merchant, and an owner of boats in Lowestoft in Suffolk, and later in Wapping in London.  It is possible that this family was a distant relation to Matthew Arnold, the Nineteenth Century poet, whose family also had its origins in Lowestoft.