Obviously, it was made to sit atop an Zwei-zwei Longriflerensschutzen, which was popular for small game hunting and practice in that era.

However, a rather liberal government came into power in The Hague around that time, and lead projectiles for the rifles became next to impossible to find. Local merchants would often wait all night to buy any available, and then would raise prices precipitously.

What normally could be had at the local WallenMartenMarket for 5 guilders was now costing 50 guilders.

Due to this lack of ammunition, the detailed locks were placed in rings and sold as novelties. They were popular with "tween"-age Dutch girls, hence the old saying of "Praat met de vergrendeling," or literally "talk to the lock," often said with hand extended to their conversant partner while wobbling one's head slowly on one's neck.

It would obviously be very difficult to change the flint. But probably not as difficult as finding someone who was skilled enough to knap one that size!

William III of England ("King Billy" to the Irish who despise his memory to this day), was Stadholder of Netherlands (effectively the warlord for the country, hence the appropriateness of giving Stadholder a ring with a gun mechanism in it!). His wife Mary was the daughter of James II and the couple jointly accepted the throne when her father vacated it and fled to France. They established a university in North America that still survives today. I believe William & Mary is the oldest university in North America.

Awww, I was in the Rijksmuseum a few years ago and missed it! I was too busy looking at all of those stupid Rembrandts.

I'll sit one out cause I don't know squat about old rings

I feel like todays craftsmen are limited because the skill has been lost or not handed down. Now we have computers and 3D printers that can make anything you want. There is something that is great by doing something tangible and I feel like 21st century people are loosing that as technology advances.

The craftsmanship is really something, that's for sure. To polish a quartz crystal to exactly the dimensions needed to fit the ring and the mechanism would be the definition of painstaking. Must have involved thousands of man hours and I'm guessing a number of failed prototypes. This was undoubtedly an extremely expensive piece of jewelry.

It's an obvious conversation piece. The crystal acts as a kind of lens. The sparks ignited within the ring become that much flashier when viewed from a distance. Imagine royalty or one of their offspring in a dimly lit chamber (no electricity) lit only by lanterns and candles, and the monarch flashes his ring a few times while pronouncing a judgment in a court case or something.

I believe it was we call an advertising give away. As far as Aluminum being used. Although it is the second most prevalent ore after Iron. It was only isolated in 1825. As time went on and science caught up. It was still a precious metal. Even in 1885 when it was used to cap the Washington Monument it was 5 times the Price of Gold. So rare the 4 pound block was exhibited in Cartier's window in NY.

Similar to Mike Diehl, I was wondering what the sparks would look like, through the crystal, especially in a darkened room. Quite a conversation piece. I could easily imagine it being created as a sample of a craftsman's skill. Wish we could know the true story behind it.

OH I didn't say Element I said Ore and Bauxite is right behind Iron. By Isolating, Refined, Concentrating or Removing Impurities would work just equally as well. The process of which you speak was a crude chemical isolation. That did not yield a pure product. Time passed and the Bayer procedure came into use. Today electricity is used to smelt the metal after first chemically treating it. Similar to electrolysis. Much the same as pure Gold is refined [or isolated from impurities] since it is also an element.

Carl, I worked in one of Atlantic Richfield's aluminum reduction plants for six years. I think you are referring to the Hall–Héroult process. Our plant utilized the Sumotomo variation.

What if you took the ring off and slid it on to a barrel or say end of walking cane or ??. Would the inside of the ring match up with a flash hole? Who knows. When I was in Amsterdam I was drinking beer and looking at the ladies not art. LOL