The Gimmal Ring

One of the prettiest tokens of friendship and affection is what is termed a Gimmal or Gimmow Ring. It is of French origin. This ring is constructed, as the name imports, of twin or double hoops, which play within one another, like the links of a chain. Each hoop has one of its sides flat and the other convex; and each is twisted once round and surmounted with an emblem or motto. The course of the twist, in each hoop, is made to correspond with that of its counterpart, so that, on bringing together the flat surfaces of the hoops, these immediately unite in one ring.

This form of ring is connected with the purest and highest acts of friendship ; it became a simple love token; and was, at length, converted into the more serious sponsalium annulus, or ring of affiance.

The lover putting his finger through one of the hoops and his mistress hers through the other, were thus symbolically yoked together; a yoke which neither could be said wholly to wear, one half being allotted to the other; and making, as it has been quaintly said, a joint tenancy.

Dryden describes a gimmal ring in his play of Don Sebastian:(1690, p. 122.)

"A curious artist wrought 'em--

With joints so close as not to be perceived;

Yet are they both each other's counterparts!

(Her part had Juan inscribed; and his had Laydor;

You know those names were theirs;) and in the midst

A heart divided in two-halfs was placed.

Now if the rivets of those rings, inclosed

Fit not each other, I have forged this lie,

But if they join, you must for ever part.?

Gimmal rings, though originally double, were, by a further refinement, made triple and even more complicated, yet the name remained unchanged.

Herrick, in his "Hesperides," has the following lines:

"The Jimmal Ring or True-Love Knot.

"Thou sent'st to me a true-love knot; but I

Return'd a ring of jimmals, to imply

Thy love had one knot, mine a triple-tye."

A singular silver gimmal ring was found in Dorset, England; the legend Ave Maria is partly inscribed on each moiety and legible only when they are united.

A beautiful enamelled ring of this kind which belonged to Sir Thomas Gresham, is extant. It opens horizontally, thus forming two rings, which are, nevertheless, linked together and respectively inscribed on the inner side with a Scripture posy: QUOD. DEVS. CONJVNXIT (what God did join) is engraved on one half and HOMO NON SEPARAT, (let not man separate), on the other. The ring is beautifully enamelled. One of the portions is set with a diamond and the other with a ruby; and corresponding with them, in a cavity inside the ring, are or rather were within the last twenty years two minute figures or genii. The workmanship is admirable and probably Italian.

The reader who may be curious to know more about the gimmal ring, and the probable derivation of the word Gimmal, is referred to a learned and interesting article by Robert Smith, Esq., in the London Archaeologia, vol. xii. p. 7.