Noonans lists two medieval gold rings at £9,000 to £13,000
Andrew Riley found both with a metal detector in fields near Northallerton in 2024, four months apart. The Blood of Christ ring carries £5,000 to £7,000 and the St Margaret ring £4,000 to £6,000.
By The Auctions Desk
What changed
Two rings reach the room. Noonans Mayfair sells two 15th-century gold rings on 22 September 2026, carrying published bands of £5,000 to £7,000 and £4,000 to £6,000.
What it means
- If you buy medieval gold: two rings from one finder and one district come up in a single session.
- If you estimate devotional jewellery: the enamelled ring carries the higher band by £1,000 at each end.
- What this is not: a result. Nothing has sold, and both figures are the house's own estimates.
Key figures
| Blood of Christthe house's published band | £5,000–£7,000 |
|---|---|
| St Margaret ringthe house's published band | £4,000–£6,000 |
| Sale dateNoonans Mayfair, London | 22 Sep 2026 |
| Foundfour months apart, one finder | 2024 |
Source: Noonans Mayfair sale of 22 September 2026 · estimates as published and reported by JCK, 18 September 2026 15:45 UTC
One finder, two rings, four months
Riley found both. Andrew Riley, a semi-retired architect from North Yorkshire, found the rings in fields near Northallerton in 2024.
Eight inches down. The first lay about eight inches deep in a ridge and furrow field he had searched for weeks.
| Ring | Estimate (£) | Estimate ($) | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enamelled blood of Christ ring, 15th century | 5,000–7,000 | 6,700–9,400 | the wounds of the crucifixion |
| St Margaret of Antioch ring, 15th century | 4,000–6,000 | 5,400–8,100 | a saint invoked in childbirth |
| Both rings | 9,000–13,000 | 12,100–17,500 | Carat Capital's addition |
Notes on this table
Source. JCK's report of 18 September 2026, which carries both sterling bands, both dollar conversions, the finder, the findspot and the sale date.
Carat Capital's arithmetic. the pair line is addition of the published bands: 5,000 + 4,000 = 9,000 and 7,000 + 6,000 = 13,000; 6,700 + 5,400 = 12,100 and 9,400 + 8,100 = 17,500.
Not a result. the sale is on 22 September 2026, so every figure here is an expectation, not a price.
Estimates are published, results are not
Bands, not prices. The house has published both bands. Nothing is sold until 22 September 2026, so no result exists to report.
The enamel carries more. The blood of Christ ring is banded £1,000 higher than the St Margaret ring at each end.
Provenance research is open
A guild connection is unproven. JCK notes the Corpus Christi Guild at York, founded in 1408, came to number 17,000 members.
One member lived near. A landowner in that guild held land close to the findspot, a link JCK itself calls possibly coincidental.
What to watch
- 20 September 2026Victorins' September Edition sale in Fredericksburg, the next dated jewellery result.
- 22 September 2026The Noonans Mayfair sale, when both bands meet the room.
- 24 September 2026Morphy's watches and jewellery sale, the next dated auction after it.
The story so far
Go deeper
What would change this call
A hammer price outside either band. An estimate is the house's public expectation, and a two-ring consignment with a story attached is exactly the kind that clears it or misses it widely.
How a treasure-find consignment reaches a saleroom
In England and Wales a find of this age and metal is reported to a coroner and assessed under the Treasure Act. If no museum acquires it, the object returns to the finder and landowner, who by convention split the proceeds. That is why a metal-detector find can arrive at a commercial saleroom two years after it leaves the ground, and why the finder is named in the catalogue rather than a dealer.
Method
JCK's report of 18 September 2026 was read in full from the publisher's own feed rather than through a guessed article address, after a constructed URL returned the site's not-found page. It is the source for both estimate bands, both dollar conversions, the 22 September sale date, the finder's name and occupation, the Northallerton findspot, the 2024 finds four months apart and the Corpus Christi Guild detail. The pair figures in the key line and in Table I are Carat Capital's addition of the published bands and are labelled as such. The sale has not happened, so the verbs throughout refuse a result. This item is single-sourced on JCK and says so. ARCHIVE: Noonans Mayfair - ours: no prior period, zero hits for Noonans and zero for Northallerton across the archive; new item covers the sale of 22 September 2026 and the two rings consigned to it. NO PRIOR PERIOD, so NEW.