Dr. Sandra Hindman, who founded Les Enluminures, organized the rings into four categories she describes as “Bold, Classic, Opulent, and Playful.” As she says in the exhibition catalogue preface, the categories are arbitrary. It is the historic and artistic importance of each ring that makes them worth collecting and viewing.
The scholarly introduction to the impressive catalogue that accompanies the exhibition, by Jonquil O’Reilly, from Christie’s Old Master Paintings department, traces the history of portraiture as it relates to jewelry, showing the tremendous importance these small objects had in the opulent portrayals of the wealthy clientele who commissioned the paintings and owned the jewels.
