I know of one full length portrait of Mary Queen of Scots, and I believe I've seen a couple other examples (possibly German), but they're way out-numbered. According the author of the book I mentioned, the middle finger "is for fools", but he doesn't really say much else about it. Although he does say a similar habit prevailed among the ancient Greeks and Romans and contemporary (1917) Hindus.
This tidbit is included in The Compendium, by the way. ;-) MaggiRos Maggie Secara ~A Compendium of Common Knowledge 1558-1603 Available at your favorite online bookseller See our gallery at http://www.zazzle.com/popinjaypress On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 10:24 PM, Frank A Thallas Jr < fathal...@collinscom.net> wrote: > Wow, my "learned" thing of the day! Went to my stash of > portraits-with-blackwork out of curiosity, and not one single middle-finger > ring - even on the folks wearing a ring on every other finger. > Amazing the things you never notice! :-) > > Liadain > > THL Liadain ni Mhordha OFO > "You get a wonderful view from the point of no return..." > wildernesse, the Outlands > http://practical-blackwork.blogspot.com > http://www.flickr.com/photos/liadains_fancies > http://practical-blackwork.tripod.com > > -----Original Message----- > From: h-costume-boun...@indra.com [mailto:h-costume-boun...@indra.com] On > Behalf Of Kimiko Small > Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 9:04 PM > To: Historical Costume > Subject: [h-cost] No rings on middle finger (was Black beads > PrincessElizabeth image) > > > > > --- On Wed, 6/17/09, Maggie <maggi...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Just as a sidebar... notice that there are NO rings on the > > middle fingers. > > Look at portrait after 16th century portrait and this is > > what you find 90% > > of the time. and not just in England. People are almost > > never shown with a > > ring on a middle finger. > > > I had noticed that a few years ago when I started keeping images, and I've > only once come across a portrait that showed someone wearing a ring on that > finger... and sadly forgot to save the image off so I don't have it. If > anyone knows of any contemporary portrait that shows someone wearing a ring > on their middle finger, do let me know. > > And thanks for the book note, as I've not read it before. > > Kimiko > > > > _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
