Enamel skull skull ring for Sir Francis Gosling. A D-shape band, featuring a richly engraved skull design and repeating foliate motif against a black enamel background, inscribed to the interior in italic script 'Sr Frans. Gosling Kt. Ald. ob : 29 Dec 1768 æt 49', approximately 1mm in width. Tested yellow gold, approximately 1.47g in weight, circa 1768, accompanied by further information about Sir Francis Gosling.
Sir Francis Gosling was an Alderman of the City of London and a private City banker based at 19 Fleet Street. In 1742 he joined a banking partnership that had been formed in 1650 by Henry Pinckney. It was subsequently known as Goslings and Sharpe, and in 1896 became the largest and oldest constituent bank of the Barclays & Co. merger. A keen philanthropist, in 1760 Gosling purchased a sixteenth-century statue of Queen Elizabeth I which had been located at Ludgate, and installed it at St Dunstan's Church on Fleet Street, where it still remains. He was subsequently knighted by King George III in October of that year.
