Some rings are worn. This one was built. Our Siamese mondop ring rises 15.5mm from the finger in stacked golden tiers, crowned with a star ruby. It was made in Siam, today's Thailand, in the late 18th or early 19th century, at the turn from the Ayutthaya kingdom to the early Rattanakosin (Bangkok) period.
What is a mondop?
A mondop is the tiered, tapering roof of a Thai temple building, such as those at Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok. The stacked silhouette is designed to echo the form of the Buddha. Mondop or "pagoda" rings borrow that architecture and shrink it to the scale of a jewel, so the wearer carried a miniature sacred building on the hand.
Jewels for the court
Rings of this type were made for the monarchy and aristocracy of Siam, to be worn as part of the lavish adornment used in court ceremonies. Afterwards they were sometimes given as gifts to important visitors or to other aristocratic families.
We know how they were worn. When the Siamese embassy visited France in 1861, the ambassador's son, Khoumsombat, was photographed wearing a tiered mondop ring very like this one, apparently also topped with a ruby cabochon.
How it is made
Look at the ring from above and you see the top tier set with a star ruby cabochon in a bezel, with the rest of the head covered in diamonds. The two outermost tiers actually rotate. They are fixed to the body of the ring by a split rivet, visible on the closed back of the bezel. This riveted, layered construction is typical of 18th-century Siamese cluster rings, and it lets the tiers catch the light as the hand moves.
The arched shoulders are just as rich. Diamonds, emeralds and rubies are rubbed over into their settings between leafy motifs and small protruding serpent-like ornaments. Turn the ring over and the underside and outer band reveal bright red and green floral enamel, the palette often seen on Siamese naga rings of the 18th century. Comparable enamelled Siamese rings are held by the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Smithsonian and the Cleveland Museum of Art.
The gold itself tests at 22 to 24 carats, and the ring weighs 13.94g, which is substantial for its size. Siamese court goldsmiths worked in very high-carat gold, which gives these jewels their deep, warm yellow and a surface that resists tarnish.
The details
- Siam, late 18th to early 19th century
- Gold testing 22–24K, 13.94g
- Star ruby cabochon approx. 3.7mm; diamonds approx. 2.6mm; emeralds and rubies to the shoulders
- Red and green enamel to the underside and outer band
- Rises 15.5mm from the finger
- UK size J½ / US 5
A true collector's ring, and as far as we know one of very few of its type to reach the open market. View the mondop ring, or read our guide to the court jewellery of Siam.