When the English Civil War culminated in the execution of Charles I and the ushering in of the Commonwealth, it was the biggest shock to the foundations of the kingdom since the Norman invasion six centuries earlier. Now an exceptionally fine and rare memorial ring commissioned around 1650 by Charles I’s widow, Queen Henrietta Maria (1609-1669), and presented as a gift by her to an English baronet, comes up for sale at Sloane Street Auctions on July 8th, with hopes of fetching £10,000.
Rings such as this were presented to Loyalists by the Queen in return for support for the Royalist cause during the English Civil War. These pledges were designed to be redeemed for the repayment of loans or for an honour once the war was won and the monarchy restored.
It is thought the Queen presented the ring to Sir Thomas Gresley of Drakelow 2nd Baronet (1629-1699), who succeeded to the baronetcy in 1651 and was High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1662-3. It was evidently never redeemed for whatever favour the Gresleys did for the king and was then passed down through the family.
Service
The daughter of Henry IV of France and a Medici, wife of Charles I of England, mother of Charles II and James II, and grandmother of William III, Queen Mary and Queen Anne. Henrietta Maria settled in Paris during the Civil War, and her son, later Charles II, followed her into exile as the Royal cause faltered in 1646. It was there that she would have commissioned the ring.
It was not until Charles was restored to the throne in 1660 and crowned Charles II, that Henrietta Maria returned to England, staying just five years before her permanent return to France. It is likely that the Queen presented the ring to Sir Thomas on her return to England in recognition of past service.
Gresley was the ancestor of Sir Nigel Gresley, 6th Baronet (1726-87), a landowner, mine owner and canal builder, as well as of Sir Nigel Gresley 10th Baronet (1876-1941), the celebrated railway engineer who designed the Steam locomotives The Flying Scotsman, The Mallard and the Sir Nigel Gresley.
The ring has a central rock crystal oval bezel with a watercolour portrait miniature of Charles I in armour after a portrait by William Dobson now at Crosby Hall, mounted in gold. It is guarded by old brilliant-cut three-stone diamond shoulders, one a paste replacement.
The ring comes in its original ebony box, the lid with applied silver royal crown cipher and initials ‘CR’. To the inside cover is a handwritten 19th century note reading Memorial Ring of Charles 1st given by his Queen Henrietta Maria to an ancestor of my grandmother Anne Heathcote, daughter of Sir Nigel Gresley of Drakelow.
It is accompanied by various documentary letters, mostly 19th century, describing the ring and its owners.
The ring passed by descent through the family who have consigned it here. The estimate is £6,000-£10,000.
“Royal mourning and memorial rings are not particularly rare, but this one is different,” said Daniel Hunt, owner of Sloane Street Auctions. “It was commissioned by the Queen herself, is visibly of better quality than many others, and has a clear, unbroken and credible family history that identifies its original recipient as an important figure of the period.
“These sort of pieces would have been a natural fit for Christie’s South Kensington in its day, but now that has gone, we find that consignors tend to come to us, so we are delighted to play our part in keeping this tradition of higher end works coming to London beyond the confines of Bond Street and St James. It is also a happy coincidence that our auctioneer, Hugh Edmeades, was Christie’s South Kensington’s former chairman.”
Live online bidding is available via Sloane Street Auctions’ website at www.sloanestreetauctions.com