Metal detectorist uncovers rare Evesham Diamond Ring, set for auction

A rare cluster ring with a flowerhead bezel and eight hogback diamonds is headed to London with an estimate of £15,000 to £20,000, a price that reflects both its survival and its startling freshness. Found by 42-year-old Stuart Jones of Solihull during a detecting session in Wormington, Gloucestershire, in November 2024, the Evesham Diamond Ring has the kind of early modern presence collectors prize: intimate in scale, lavish in detail, and unmistakably designed to be seen.

Noonans has catalogued the jewel as a late-16th- to early-17th-century diamond and enamel ring, and it is being offered as lot 106 in the Jewellery sale on Tuesday, June 23, 2026. The ring centers on a rose-cut stone surrounded by eight hogback diamonds, a cluster arrangement that feels emphatically period-correct rather than decorative for decoration’s sake. Two of the diamonds are loose, a reminder that four centuries of wear and burial can leave a jewel with as much vulnerability as romance. The underside of the bezel is finished with a turquoise-and-white enamel flowerhead, while the shoulders carry applied quatrefoil flowerheads on a scroll- and foliate-engraved band.

That combination of gem setting and surface ornament is what makes the ring more than a treasure-finder headline. Frances Noble, Noonans’ head of jewellery, said early 17th-century baroque taste demanded grand rings that made an impression, and fashions were moving away from solitary stones toward more elaborate group settings, including rosettes, pansies, crosses and fleur-de-lys. In other words, this is not simply a diamond ring that survived; it is a ring that documents a style shift, when the language of jewels became more theatrical and more architectural.

Its value will ultimately depend on the same forces that drive any serious historical jewel at auction: provenance, rarity, condition and the quality of the design. Noonans has called the eight-hogback-diamond cluster very rare, and rarity is exactly what collectors pay for when a piece arrives with both a compelling story and a recognizably sophisticated period hand. Stuart Jones described the discovery as a “once in a lifetime find,” but for buyers, the greater question is whether objects like this are becoming a more durable niche within the diamond market.

Noonans has already shown that detectorist-discovered jewels can command real momentum, with sales including the Ashfield Ring, the George Grenville seal ring, the Charles I hawking ring and a medieval diamond ring that sold for £38,000 in 2022. That record suggests a market that is increasingly willing to reward historical diamond jewels not just as curiosities, but as scarce works of wearable art.