mactevirtute:

MEMENTO MORI RING WITH ENAMEL AND DIAMONDS

England, late 17th to early 18th century

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During the seventeenth century, scarcely a year passed without a serious outbreak of fever, cholera, plague, small pox, or typhus. To support the Christian view of life as a preparation for a holy death, people liked to carry with them powerful reminders of mortality, especially the skull and crossed bones as occur here.