Mastery of Design: The Monkey Face Swivel Ring, 1800-1839

The Victoria & Albert Museum

Part of the collection of Reverend Townshend, this ring is set with Sunstone (feldspar) in a swivel gold setting, carved with a cameo of a monkey's head. The ring was made between 1800 and 1839 to showcase the stone and was never meant to be worn.

Curiously, the setting is much more whimsical than those of the other stones in the Reverend’s important collection. Through the swivel setting, the monkey's face can be turned away to reveal a smooth cabochon which shows the feldspar's clarity and bright color. 

This ring, like many which were acquired by Reverend Townshend wasd originally in the possession of Henry Philip Hope (d.1839) who formed a famous collection of diamonds and precious stones—a collection which included the famous Hope blue diamond, now in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington. 

Object of the Day, Museum Edition: The Church Fire Opal, 1800-69

This and all related images courtesy of
the Victoria & Albert Museum

This stunning fire opal of orange-red has been faceted and mounted in a gold ring with a coronet setting.  Not much is known about the setting.  It was originally set around 1800, and, then, probably altered circa 1869.


This ring, like those from the Townshend Collection at the V&A was made  to display the stone more so than for wear.  The important collection of 154 gems bequeathed by the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend, a cleric and poet, represents some of the world’s rarest and finest jewels.  Sir A. H. Church gave donated additional specimens, including this amazing fire opal, in 1913. Church was responsible for compiling the first catalog “Precious Stones: A Guide to the Townshend Collection” in 1883.   This stone is among the most unusual in the collection.

Opal naturally occurs when water containing microscopically small spheres of silica settles in cavities and veins in the Earth. Opal, like many other stones, occur in a wide range of colors, with those which display an iridescent play of color considered “precious.”  Fire opal is a variety of opal which is often reddish or orange. Due to its lower water content and comparative hardness, unlike other kinds of opal, it can be cut with facets.

A sampling of the unusual jewels in the Townshend Collection.
Of note, the first two in the top row are particularly fine--green and pink tourmaline respectively.

Mastery of Design: The Townshend Blue Diamond Ring, c. 1825

Blue and White Diamond Ring
Circa 1825
From the Townshend Collection
This and all related images courtesy of:
The Victoria & Albert Museum

From the important gem collection of the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend, we see this magnificent gold ring set with an oval, natural blue diamond.  The sparkling violet-blue diamond is surrounded by a border of  twelve white diamonds. A further three diamonds are set in triangular mounts on each shoulder of the ring.

The ring was made circa 1825.

Painting of the Day: The Reverend Townshend's Dog

The Reverend Townshend's Dog
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Over the past three years, we have had a nice long look at the Reverend Chauncey Hare Townshend's magnificent collection of jewels which is on display in the V&A. Now, let's look at his beloved dog. Here, we see the Reverend's dog, A black King Charles spaniel as he chases a dragonfly in a plush interior which also shows, at right a pedestal table with a bowl laden with flowers before a window, and curtains on the left.

This is the work of François Bocion (1828-1890) who was born in Lausanne. He trained with Christian Gottlieb Steinlen (1779-1847) in Vevey and subsequently with François Bonnet (1811-1894) in Lausanne. Later, he became a teacher at the Ecole moyenne et industrielle of Lausanne, a position he held until his death.

The Revered Townshend's dog, called Bully, is mentioned and described in the correspondence of Charles Dickens who knew Townshend since the 1840s. I'm glad he is still remembered today.

Mastery of Design: The Shepherds and Goats Signet Ring, 200-100 BC

Intaglio Ring
Italy, 200-100 B.C.
The Victoria & Albert Museum

A vertically-positioned oval intaglio of brown-hued carnelian is the centerpiece of this ancient ring which nicely demonstrates the mastery of early Roman gem carving.

It’s thought that this ring was meant to represent a shepherd. The conclusion makes sense since it depicts a young man with a goat which, I’m guessing, represents his flock. It’s hard to carve a whole flock of goats onto a ring. Don’t let the fact that the young man is nude bother you.

Others suggest that since the fellow has no clothes on, he could be the god Mercury. I don’t know if I’d want to be a shepherd with no pants. So, Mercury is a good guess, too, especially since Mercury’s attribute is often a ram and he does tend to be shown wearing the sort of broad-brimmed hat favored by farmers and travelers.

Either way, the goat’s not too happy. Maybe he doesn’t like the pan flute. Goats probably don’t care for pipe music.

The ring was made in Italy circa 200-100 BC. Of course, it ended up in the collection of the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend (1798-1868), who preferred collecting jewelry to being a clergyman. I agree with him wholeheartedly.

Masterpiece of the Week: Children Playing with a Lamb, 1840

Children Playing with a LambSwiss, 1840
The Victoria & Albert Museum

The painter Barthélemy Menn (1815-1893) was born in Geneva where he studied with some of the greatest Swiss and French painters of the Nineteenth Century.  Menn later studied with the famed Ingres and followed him in Rome where he produced portraits and landscapes similar in style to those of the school of Barbizon.

This 1840 painting, “Children Playing with a Lamb,” is a great example of Menn's transitional style when he ceased historical painting in favor of a freer approach based on natural themes. 

The genre scene depicts two women and two children playing with a lamb, which may be understood as a symbolic representation of the traditional image of Mary and Anne with the Infants Jesus and St John the Baptist.

It’s very Easter-y.  So, there you are.  

This painting was part of the collection of Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend whom we know largely for his important collection of jewels.  The work was listed in the 1868 post-mortem register of the contents of his villa in Lausanne as “Oil on millboard. Children playing with a Lamb. By B. Menn. In frame. Signed. Swiss. Present century.”  It was bequeathed by Townshend to the V&A in 1868.

Mastery of Design: The Townshend Deep Blue Turquoise and Diamond Ring, 1850-60

Turquoise Ring
from the Townshend Collection
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Here’s another ring from the  collection of 154 gems bequeathed to the V&A by the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend, a cleric and poet. Again though the stone has been set into a ring, it was never meant to be worn.  The setting—which dates between 1850 and 1860--serves only to showcase the stone.

The central turquoise is of exceptional quality.  It has been surrounded by diamonds to accent the unusually deep color of the stone.  Turquoise naturally occurs in shades of pale blue through greenish blue to green—the blue color being caused by the presence of copper with green tints developing with the presence of iron.

The most valuable turquoise stones are those of the deepest color.  A deep sky blue is greatly prized.  This midnight blue, however, is truly rare and extremely valuable.  Few examples of turquoise this deep are known.

Turquoise is a porous stone and it must be handled with care.  It’s best that this incredibly rare stone was never worn.  The stone is prone discoloration by the absorption of oils from the skin or from perfume.  Compromising the superb depth of color here would have been a true crime against nature. 

Mastery of Design: The Townshend Canary Diamond, 1800-1869

Click image to enlarge
The Townshend Canary Diamond
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Here’s another jewel from the important collection of the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend who donated his fine assortment of 154 gems to the V&A. This stone, like the others in the collection, has been mounted as ring—not for wear, but simply to display the stone. This is a truly fine specimen of a canary diamond. The yellow sparkler has been set into a gold ring and is surrounded by eight rose-cut diamonds of equally exquisite quality. 

The exceptional suite of diamonds from the Townshend Collection.

Painting of the Day: Playing with Baby, 1795

Click Image to Enlarge
Playing with Baby
John Cranch, 1795
From the Townshend Collection at
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Painted in 1795 by John Cranch (1751-1821), this work of oil on panel was bequeathed to the V&A by the Reverend Chauncey Hare Townshend in 1868.

Townshend (1798-1868), the son of a landowner, was educated at Eton and Oxford, and took holy orders although he never practiced his vocation. Instead, Townshend worked as an essayist, poet and writer on mesmerism.

However, we remember Townshend today not for his work, but for his collections of jewels and paintings. Townshend’s dear friend Charles Dickens dedicated “Great Expectations” to him, and it is believed that Townshend was the inspiration for the character of the collector Mr. Fairlie in “The Woman in White” by Wilkie Collins (1824-1889). According to the V&A, in addition to the monumental collection of 154 flawless gemstones, “At his death he left his collection of over 350 oil paintings, watercolours and prints to the then South Kensington Museum [now the V&A].” This painting by Cranch typifies the Reverend’s collection. He favored, rather as I do, genre paintings and portraits. John Cranch worked principally as a genre painter, especially of rural and interior scenes which allowed him to portray different qualities of light in one composition. This painting depicts an intimate family moment, showing a woman by a fire entertaining a baby by shaking a rattle above its head. Various family members punctuate the scene which is set in a favored setting of the artist—a rustic room with a low-beamed ceiling and plastic walls which are slightly crumbling.

Cranch became associated with somewhat eccentric and highly detailed compositions. It was the quirkiness and attention to detail of the artist’s paintings which appealed to the Reverend Townshend whose collection is filled with similarly unique and charming works.

Mastery of Design: The Shepherds and Goats Signet Ring, 200-100 BC

Intaglio Ring
Italy, 200-100 B.C.
The Victoria & Albert Museum

A vertically-positioned oval intaglio of brown-hued carnelian is the centerpiece of this ancient ring which nicely demonstrates the mastery of early Roman gem carving.

It’s thought that this ring was meant to represent a shepherd. The conclusion makes sense since it depicts a young man with a goat which, I’m guessing, represents his flock. It’s hard to carve a whole flock of goats onto a ring. Don’t let the fact that the young man is nude bother you.

Others suggest that since the fellow has no clothes on, he could be the god Mercury. I don’t know if I’d want to be a shepherd with no pants. So, Mercury is a good guess, too, especially since Mercury’s attribute is often a ram and he does tend to be shown wearing the sort of broad-brimmed hat favored by farmers and travelers.

Either way, the goat’s not too happy. Maybe he doesn’t like the pan flute. Goats probably don’t care for pipe music.

The ring was made in Italy circa 200-100 BC. Of course, it ended up in the collection of the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend (1798-1868), who preferred collecting jewelry to being a clergyman. I agree with him wholeheartedly.

Mastery of Design: The Townshend Orange Sapphire

Ring with Orange Sapphire and Diamonds, 1850
From the Townshend Collection
The Victoria & Albert Museum

From the collection of the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend, we see this exceptional orange sapphire.  Rubies and sapphires are varieties of corundum (aluminum oxide) which in its purest form is colorless. However, during formation of these crystals, local impurities in the earth create a range of different colors.  Rubies are colored by chromium and are always red, and while, sapphires typically are colored blue by iron and titanium, other colors of sapphire result from different combinations and proportions of impurities. When this occurs, the name sapphire is always prefixed with the color.

This ring is set with a stunning orange sapphire with a border of brilliant-cut diamonds, in a gold setting of about 1850.  It was made solely to showcase the stone.  

Object of the Day, Museum Edition: The Church Fire Opal, 1800-69

This and all related images courtesy of
the Victoria & Albert Museum

This stunning fire opal of orange-red has been faceted and mounted in a gold ring with a coronet setting.  Not much is known about the setting.  It was originally set around 1800, and, then, probably altered circa 1869.


This ring, like those from the Townshend Collection at the V&A was made  to display the stone more so than for wear.  The important collection of 154 gems bequeathed by the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend, a cleric and poet, represents some of the world’s rarest and finest jewels.  Sir A. H. Church gave donated additional specimens, including this amazing fire opal, in 1913. Church was responsible for compiling the first catalog “Precious Stones: A Guide to the Townshend Collection” in 1883.   This stone is among the most unusual in the collection.

Opal naturally occurs when water containing microscopically small spheres of silica settles in cavities and veins in the Earth. Opal, like many other stones, occur in a wide range of colors, with those which display an iridescent play of color considered “precious.”  Fire opal is a variety of opal which is often reddish or orange. Due to its lower water content and comparative hardness, unlike other kinds of opal, it can be cut with facets.

A sampling of the unusual jewels in the Townshend Collection.
Of note, the first two in the top row are particularly fine--green and pink tourmaline respectively.

Unusual Artifacts: The Townshend "Fire Marble" Lumachella Ring, c. 1850

Lumachella Ring
The Townshend Collection at
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Oh, Reverend Townshend…when did you find time to preach? That’s right. You didn’t.

At this point, regular readers have learned more from me about the Reverend Chauncey (or Chauncy, depending on the day) Hare Townshend than they ever wanted to know. He’s even popped up in Mr. Punch of Belgrave Square. So, I’ll spare you more details about his life of privilege and collecting and palling around with Dickens. If you want to learn more, click on the "Townshend Collection" tag below to see other posts about him.

Here’s another ring from Townshend’s collection. This one’s not quite as shimmery as the others, but it’s equally as rare. The stone here is lumachella—a marble that contains the fossilized remains of snail shells. Another name for this gem is “fire marble” since the shells provide an iridescent play of red and green. Most gem quality lumachella comes from Corinth, Greece. This one is set in a coronet mount—meant only for display, probably around 1850.

Mastery of Design: The Townshend Orange Tourmaline, 1800-1869

Orange Tourmaline
The Townshend Collection
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Here’s another of the 154 gems which the Reverend Chauncey Hare Townshend bequeathed to the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A). The collection included several gems which had previously been owned by the Hope family (those folks who had the big blue diamond) and, in 1913, the collection was added to by Sir A.H. Church.

This rare stone is actually a tourmaline. We tend to think of tourmalines as being pink, green or blue, but this one is a rusty orange with a bit of brown in it. It’s quite a find! Townshend purchased this stone from H.P. Hope. This setting of gold is likely not the setting which had been used by Hope. Many of the rings which Townshend purchased from Hope have shoulders or bezels embellished with diamonds. Townshend had several of them reset in simpler mounts so that the stone itself would be the focus. In this case, because of the rarity of the color, Townshend wished for nothing to distract from the tourmaline.

Object of the Day, Museum Edition: The Good Harvest of 1854

The Victoria & Albert Museum

Painter Charles Allston Collins was a friend of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and, as an admirer, imitated the bright color palette and detail of their paintings. The celebrated art critic John Ruskin lauded “the careful painting in this little study” entitled, “The Good Harvest of 1854.” In this scene, a young girl is shown with a sheaf of corn symbolizing bread. The ivy may alludes to the wine of Holy Communion.

This painting was part of the collection of the Reverend Chauncey Hare Townshend. Regular readers of this blog know the Reverend as a collector of jewels, but he also had an eye for paintings.

Mastery of Design: The Townshend Claw Mount Diamond, 1840-50

The Townshend Silver Claw Diamond
1840-1850
The VIctoria & Albert Museum

Here’s a gorgeous diamond ring which I’m sure Her Majesty wouldn’t mind wearing and owning. It’s not part of her personal collection, however. In fact, it’s part of the V&A’s Townshend Collection. As we know, the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend amassed a monumental collection of gems—some of which once belonged to Henry Philip Hope (as in “the Hope Diamond”). This enormous diamond is at the heart of the reverend’s collection—the most impressive of eight diamond rings which were bequeathed to the V&A in 1869 along with nearly three hundred other gem pieces.

This stone is a nearly colorless. Weighing about four carats, the stone is set in a silver claw mount which dates to about 1840 to 1850.

The Eight Diamond Rings in the Townshend Collection
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Unusual Artifacts: The Townshend Cryptocrystalline Quartz, 1825

Golden Chalcedony Ring
The Townshend Collection at
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This nifty gem is cryptocrystalline quartz. This natural phenomenon occurs when quartz forms as a mass of microscopically small crystals. It’s also known as “microcrystalline quartz,” but I like cryptocrystalline better since it sounds spoooooooooooky.

This family of quartz includes many different gemstones such as chalcedony, agate, carnelian, jasper and sard. The colors of the stones vary slightly depending on the occurrence of different impurities such as iron, manganese and chrome.

This ring is one of the 154 gems bequeathed to the V&A by the Reverend Chauncey Hare Townshend. Like the others in the collection it was mounted in a gold setting for display purposes only. The Gothic-style gold setting dates to about 1825. So, what exactly is this stone? Well, guess what. It’s a rare example of chalcedony that isn’t the typical blue-gray color that we think of. Oddly enough, just the other day, I was having a conversation with my father about chalcedony and if it was possible for it to be any other color. I declared that I didn’t think it possible. But, I wasn’t sure, so I went digging for answers and this is the result. If, during formation, iron manganese or chrome in peculiar amounts is introduced to a cryptocrystalline gem, the color can be altered. This is a very, very rare event. But, it can happen. The result, in this case, from an introduction of iron is a chalcedony with a golden hue.

Mastery of Design: The Townshend Red Spinel, 1840

Red Spinel in an exceptional mount of gold and European-cut diamonds, 1840.
Part of the Townshend Collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

I like natural spinels. They’re rather difficult to come by, but when you finally see when, you’re immediately struck by the beautiful fire they exhibit and the wide range of colors (or lack thereof) in which they come. Red spinels were once known as “balas rubies,” “spinel rubies” and then “ruby spinels,” and they have been frequently linked with or confused with rubies despite their substantially different chemical makeup.

This ring, set with a fine red spinel framed by a border of European-cut diamonds in a gold mount, forms part of the celebrated collection of 154 gems bequeathed to the V&A by the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend, a cleric and poet. The ring was made c. 1840 purely for the purpose of displaying this exceptional stone. 

Object of Day, Museum Edition: The Townshend Turquoise Medusa, 1800-1869

Bas Relief Carved Cameo in Turquoise Depicting a Female Figure, possible Medusa.
1800-1869
The Collection of the Reverend  Chauncy Hare Townshend
Previously owned by H.P. Hope
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Among the gorgeous collection of jewels amassed by the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend is this turquoise and gold jewel made into a cameo of a female head, probably Medusa. The stone was carved between 1800 and 1869. In 1869, it was set into a ring for purposes of display.

Turquoise has been mined for centuries, first by the Ancient Egyptians in Sinai over 6000 years ago. The stone’s sky-blue color comes from copper. Its softness makes it perfect for carving.

Many of the jewels in the Reverend’s collection, including this stone, were originally owned by Henry Philip Hope, a brother of the novelist and antiquary Thomas Hope. H. P. Hope formed a famous collection of diamonds and precious which once included the Hope blue diamond, now in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington.

Painting of the Day: The Reverend Townshend's Dog

The Reverend Townshend's Dog
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Over the past three years, we have had a nice long look at the Reverend Chauncey Hare Townshend's magnificent collection of jewels which is on display in the V&A. Now, let's look at his beloved dog. Here, we see the Reverend's dog, A black King Charles spaniel as he chases a dragonfly in a plush interior which also shows, at right a pedestal table with a bowl laden with flowers before a window, and curtains on the left.

This is the work of François Bocion (1828-1890) who was born in Lausanne. He trained with Christian Gottlieb Steinlen (1779-1847) in Vevey and subsequently with François Bonnet (1811-1894) in Lausanne. Later, he became a teacher at the Ecole moyenne et industrielle of Lausanne, a position he held until his death.

The Revered Townshend's dog, called Bully, is mentioned and described in the correspondence of Charles Dickens who knew Townshend since the 1840s. I'm glad he is still remembered today.