comprising a red and orange jade ring, 2.6cm high; and a large celadon and russet jade ring, 3.2cm high

Provenance

The William Reid collection

William ‘Bill’ Reid CBE (8 November 1926 – 19 June 2014) was a Scottish military historian who became director of the National Army Museum in 1970, a position he held for 17 years. He was an acknowledged military historian, curator and expert in weaponry and the leading authority in the UK on armour and medieval arms. He published widely on his subject, most notably The Lore of Arms: A concise history of weaponry, New York, 1984, which was translated into six languages.

He was an avid collector of Chinese thumb-rings, some of which were gifted to the British Museum in 2022 and featured in the museum’s exhibition China’s Hidden Century, 18 May - 8 October 2023, London .

The Manchu thumb ring was used on the hand that pulled the bowstring to allow for a snappier release for archery on horseback. In the 19^th Century, their use spread to the merchant class and other elites as a form of jewelry and a symbol of masculinity, rather than as a practical accessory. What had originated as a sign of Manchu ancestry also became an accessory, and a symbol of masculinity, for Han-Chinese men.