A ring once owned by author Jane Austen will be auctioned by Sotheby’s later this month. Austen, the author of the much-loved novels “Pride and Prejudice,” “Sense and Sensibility” and “Emma,” never married or had children, but the ring has remained in the possession of her family since her death in 1817. Scholars had been unaware of its existence, and it is expected to sell at auction for $31,000 to $46,000.
The ring is made of gold with a cabachon blue stone of natural turquoise. It is, as Sotheby’s auction house notes, in a simple style Austen wrote of sympathetically in her work. In “Mansfield Park,” Fanny Price is given a gold chain by her cousin Edmund, who tells her, “I consulted the simplicity of your taste.”
The ring will be offered at Sotheby’s English Literature, History, Children’s Books and Illustrations auction on July 10.
