Assembled by one Elizabeth Snaith in the Victorian period, the rings relate to family, friends and business partners, many of them members of the Anglican-Orthodox community and the wider Oxford movement.
Individuals include the Hackney clergymen Henry Handley Norris (1771-1850) and John Watson (1767-1869) and the merchant Joshua Watson (1771-1855), who together were at the centre of the Hackney Phalanx in the early 19th century.
The Georgian and William IV gold and enamel mourning rings will be sold as a single lot with a guide of £15,000-20,000.
Meanwhile, a single-owner collector of early rings that comes for sale at Lawrences of Crewkerne on October 14 includes many mourning and memonto mori pieces. A selection of half a dozen rings appears below.
