Every metal detector dreams of digging up something valuable. For one man, an English countryside yielded an incredible discovery when he came across a medieval diamond band in “almost perfect condition” near Thorncombe, in southwest England.
The item is now expected to fetch between £30,000 and £40,000 when it goes up for auction later this month.
David Board, 69, found the “impressive” ring on his second attempt at becoming a metal detector after a stint in the 1970s when he scoured local beaches but found nothing of major importance, said the home of Noonans auctions earlier this week.
Board called the ring “a once-in-a-lifetime find”.
During an interview with CNN , he said: “There will probably never be another like it. Back then, each ring was individual and unique, not mass-produced like it is today. It’s impressive.”
The board resumed metal detecting in 2019. During the second day of field searching, he almost gave up when he heard a beeping in his metal detector on a trail.
Initially, the noise sounded like a candy wrapper, but Board soon realized it was a gold ring. When he dug up everything covered in mud, Board said he thought it was just “junk” and stuffed it in his pocket.
“It was when I got home and washed it that we realized it was much better than we thought,” he explained.
The ring is in “almost perfect condition,” Nigel Mills, Coin and Antiques Consultant at Noonans, said in the statement. The jewel has a golden ring with two bands intertwined to symbolize the marital union and an inverted diamond set in it.
Inside the band is a medieval French inscription that reads, “Ieo vos tien foi tenes le moy,” translated as “I keep your faith, keep mine,” according to the auction house.
Due to the location of the find and the quality of the ring, experts at Noonans have concluded that it is Joan Brook’s wedding band, given to her by her husband, Thomas Brook.
Their marriage in 1388 brought the Brook family great wealth, the auction house said, as Joan was the widow of Robert Cheddar, a wealthy cloth merchant and twice mayor of Bristol, a city in western England.
It was at a time when medieval notions of chivalry and courtly love were at their height, concepts that the ring reflects, Noonans said.
Now known as The Lady Brook Medieval Diamond Ring, the item will go up for auction on November 29th.
Board leaves three times a week, weather permitting, in hopes of discovering another great relic among the musket balls and coins of King George I.
“It would be awesome if I did,” he replied, adding “you never know what the next sign is going to bring.”
The find adds to a list of incredible discoveries made by detectorists in the UK.
An amateur discovered a collection of Bronze Age objects in a Scottish countryside in 2020, in what experts at the time called a “nationally significant” discovery.
Last year, the CNN reported that a huge trove of Iron Age gold artifacts has been found by a novice detectorist in Denmark.
(Posted by Carolina Farias)
Source: CNN Brasil
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