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conclude that these less-expensive, “mass-produced” rings were designed for everyday
use in France—and also for export to New France. However, even more interestingly,
rings of the same type and decoration exist today in British and French museums,
except those specimens were made with precious metals and sometimes inlaid with
stones. Asking why both cheap imitations and expensive renderings of the same rings
were being produced at the same time, Mason references French jewelry expert
Claudette Joannis: “for two-hundred years, these rings remained in favor with
princesses as with peasants” (Mason and Ehrhardt 2009:66). Still, Mason and Ehrhardt
(2009:66) remind us that the “museum specimens” are a minority, and that copper-
alloy rings were readily available as tokens or keepsakes, or even as souvenirs at
religious pilgrimage sites (Mason and Ehrhardt 2009:66).
Given how prolific trinket rings were throughout Europe over time, it remains
uncertain when Jesuit-style rings first appeared in New France. The beginning of
Mason’s “Jesuit Rings, Jesuits and Chronology” discusses the La Belle shipwreck,
which contained a horde of over 1,500 rings. The wreck was recovered from
Matagorda Bay, Texas, and has been dated to 1687 (Mason 2003:233). The La Belle
discovery could possibly allude to trade up the Mississippi and into the interior, but
the intended destination of the rings is unknown. Here Mason again cautions against
using the rings in order to date sites. As far as associating the rings with the Jesuits,
she recalls how previous scholars have often jumped to hasty conclusions regarding
both how and why the rings came into New France and what they were used for. For
example, Hauser (1982:39) stated that the rings were brought into New France by the
missionaries, who “probably brought the prototypes from France themselves.” Hauser
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