People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 May 1893 — Delicate Italian Kings. [ARTICLE]

Delicate Italian Kings.

Rings of Italian workmanship are remarkably beautiful, says the Detroit Free Press. Venice particularly excelled in this art. In the Londesborough collection is a fine specimen. The four claws of the outer ring, in open work, support the setting of a sharply pointed pyramidal diamond, such as was then coveted for writing on glass. The shank bears a fanciful resemblance to a serpent swallowing a bird,of which only the claws connecting the face remain in sight. It was with a similar ring Raleigh wrote the words .on a window pane: “Fain would I climb, but that I fear to fall,” to which Queen Elizabeth added: “If thy heart fail thee, climb not at all,” an implied encouragement which led him on to fortune.