A rare and exquisite enamel

A rare and exquisite enamel, ruby and diamond ring, France, circa 1765, designed as a pair of doves among flowering branches, applied with black, white, green and deep blue enamel and set with rose-cut diamonds and cushion-shaped rubies, the reverse similarly enamelled with an indistinct inscription in French, to a fluted gold shank, size L1/2

Cf.: Hugh Tait ed., The Art of the Jeweller: a Catalogue of the Hull Grundy Gift to the British Museum, London, 1984, p.77 cat no. 360, for an illustration of a ring of similar design, likely intended as a betrothal gift, British Museum accession no.1978,1002.213. A similar design by the French jeweller Maria, published in Paris circa 1765, is illustrated in Charlotte Gere, Rings from 1500-1900, in A. Ward et al., The Ring from Antiquity to the Twentieth Century, London, 1981, p. 110-111