On Thursday 2 July we unveiled the Armillary Sphere ring, the newest addition to our Elizabeth collection, at a private view of Philip Mould & Company's exhibition Elizabeth I: Queen & Court. When I saw the gallery was putting on such an extraordinary exhibition all about Elizabeth, I cheekily reached out to ask whether we could launch the ring there, and they very kindly said yes.
Drawn from private collections, the exhibition included never-before-seen and rarely shown paintings. It brought together four portraits tracing Elizabeth from young princess to Virgin Queen, including the Hampden portrait, the earliest surviving life-size, full-length portrait of her and the star of the show. Around her hung the courtiers and confidants of her reign, and the exhibition explored how portraiture was used to project power. It felt serendipitous that the exhibition was on at exactly the right time.
On the night I gave a short talk on why Elizabeth has inspired Aril, especially how she used jewellery and symbols in her portraits, from the rose to the armillary sphere. Behind us hung the Hampden portrait, in which Elizabeth wears an armillary sphere jewel. She is surrounded by flowers and fruit as symbols of her fertility and marriageability, including roses (of course) and a pomegranate. The seeds of a pomegranate are called arils, which is where our name comes from, so that was particularly lovely to see.
The Armillary Sphere ring began with late 16th century examples in the British Museum's horology collection, which I went to see before we set about reverse engineering how the mechanism worked. Two sphere rings were on display, each with its own hidden engraving, alongside pieces from the Elizabeth, Georgiana and Clara collections. It was a pinch-me moment to see the inspiration and the Elizabeth collection together in the same room.
Ellie Smith, Associate Director and exhibition curator at Philip Mould, also spoke about the paintings and a little bit about the jewellery in them, which was a joy to hear with the portraits hanging around us.
Thank you so much to Ellie and everyone at Philip Mould & Company for hosting us so generously, and to everyone who came and made it a night to remember!
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