A shopper who paid £15 for an old ring at a charity shop in Leicester has made thousands of pounds after auction experts linked the item to the British royal family. It was sold at Hansons Auctioneers in Etwall, Derbyshire, where intense bidding from buyers around the world pushed the final price to £5,500.
The buyer spotted the ring among everyday items in a local charity shop without knowing its historical importance, according to Hansons Auctioneers. The rare ring turned out to be a 19th-century gold and enamel mourning ring made to mark the death of Princess Amelia, the youngest daughter of King George III and Queen Charlotte. After taking it to experts for an appraisal, specialists identified the detailed gold ring as a rare item from the Regency era.
Princess Amelia was born on 7 August 1783 and was the youngest of the 15 children of King George III and Queen Charlotte. She died on 2 November 1810, aged 27, after a long battle with tuberculosis. After her funeral at Windsor, her elder brother, the Prince Regent, who later became King George IV, asked court goldsmiths Rundell, Bridge & Rundell to make 52 mourning rings.
“From a simple box emerged a piece of deeply personal Royal history, commissioned by the Royal family itself to honour a lost loved one. She was widely reported to be her father’s favourite daughter.
Princess Amelia pressed a ring containing a lock of her hair into her father’s hand as she lay dying, according to accounts of her final hours. She is said to have whispered the words “remember me”. It also carries the words “Remember me” in white enamel. “The white enamel used in the ring denotes that Amelia was unmarried at the time of her death,” Mr Hanson explained.
This mourning ring was created to commemorate the life and death of Princess Amelia, and it speaks volumes in its craftsmanship and symbolism. Historical records cited by Hansons Auctioneers state that her death deeply affected the King and played a major role in his final and lasting decline in mental health. These were made in her memory and given only to close family members and trusted friends of the royal household. The ring has a crown design above the initial ‘A’. “White enamel symbolised purity and innocence in mourning jewellery, particularly for those who died young or unmarried. It contrasts with the more commonly used black enamel, which signified general mourning.”