In south-west England, an amateur treasure hunter stumbled upon an ancient artifact: a medieval wedding ring in near-perfect condition.
Every treasure hunter dreams of making the big find at some point. Also David Board from the English county of Dorset. The 69-year-old retired truck driver came across a medieval wedding ring in a field near Thorncombe, dubbed ‘The Lady Brook Medieval Diamond Ring’, which fetched £38,000 at auction in Mayfair, London on November 29.
It was 2019 when Board was out with his metal detector once again. He was about to give up when the detector suddenly beeped. At first he thought the find was a piece of candy wrapper, but then he realized it was a ring, although he believed it tended to be “junk”. He pocketed the mud-covered part anyway.
“When I got home and washed it up, we found it was a lot better than we thought it would be,” he says. The ring was gold, formed by two intertwined bands and adorned with an inverted diamond. Engraved on the inside were the words “Ieo vos tien foi tenes le moy,” which turned out to be medieval French, and translates to “I keep your faith, you keep mine.” The ring, no doubt, was old, very old. David Board said in an interview with CNN: “There will never be another ring like that.”
The ring is in “nearly perfect condition,” said Nigel Mills, Coins and Antiques Advisor to auction house Noonans. Based on where it was found, it is assumed that it is the wedding ring of a certain Joan Brook, which was given to her by her husband Thomas Brook. Marriage in 1388 brought great wealth to the Brook family as Joan was the widow of wealthy draper and two-time Bristol Mayor Robert Cheddar. All this happened at a time when the now romanticized medieval ideas of chivalry and courtly love shaped thought; both are also reflected in the ring, according to the experts at Noonans.
The ring’s discovery adds to a list of incredible finds in Britain. An amateur treasure hunter discovered a cluster of Bronze Age objects in a Scottish field in 2020 in what experts at the time described as a “nationally important” discovery. Just last year, CNN reported that an inexperienced prospector had found a vast hoard of Iron Age gold artifacts in Denmark.
In any case, David Board is “super happy”, as he says: “I like a pint, but I think I can now occasionally upgrade to champagne.” However, he wants to leave a large part of the money to his daughter, who is currently working for her family is building a house “and can certainly use it”.
He also continues to go out with his detector three times a week, weather permitting, hoping to discover another great relic among the usual musket balls and baroque coins he finds. “It would be amazing if I did that,” he says, adding, “You never know what the next signal will bring.”