Based on the ring found at the British Museum (see last picture), this ring was entirely hand fabricated from 999 pure silver using only but a few basic (non electric) hand tools. It features a 12mm genuine 'Toadstone' (Lepidotes).
Size: 7us (can not be resized)
 
 
 
Toadstone of the Medieval.
 
For nearly 500 years (13th-18th century) the Toadstone was then considered a real ''stone'' which even Shakespeare alluded to in 'As You Like It' In Act 2, Scene 1, the Bard of Avon has Duke Senior say: "Sweet are the uses of adversity; Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head". Mentioned in various old treatises concerning the magical and medicinal properties of gems and stones under its Latin name, "Bufonius lapis," and was also called Borax, Nosa, Crapondinus, Crapaudina, Chelonitis, and Batrachites. It was also called Grateriano and Garatronius, after a gentleman named Gratterus, who in 1473 found a very large one, reputed to have marvellous power. In the 1657 "Thaumatographia" of a Polish physician named Jonstonus, it is said that the "Toads produce a stone, with their own image and have great force against malignant tumours that are venomous. The stones are heated it in a bag, and rubbed directly on the affected part of the body. They prevail against inchantments of witches, especially for women and children bewitched. As soon as you apply the stone to the bewitched he or she starts to sweats. During the plague it is laid to the heart to strengthen it." Another physician of the same period said that the stone could be cut out of the toad's head. In the book "Hortus Sanitatis," dated 1490, there is a picture (see picture left), of a gentleman performing this operation successfully on a gigantic toad. It was said that stone were thrown out of the mouth by old toads. Another way of extracting the stone was to place a toad on a piece of red cloth which would make it spit out it's stone. It would then have to be taken rapidly it not the toad would swallow it back again before one can seize the precious gem.