This Antique Ring Has a Hidden Compartment—Wait Until You See What It’s For
October 27, 2025
Source: ebay
In a world before deodorant, sewer systems and hand sanitizer, people found inventive ways to stay fresh — and survive. One of the more peculiar artifacts from the past is what’s known as a vinaigrette ring. A minute and decorative piece of jewelry that was so much more than fashionable. A recent Reddit post has resurfaced the antique oddity, when a user posted pictures of a mysterious copper. Looking ring that their girlfriend found. Its hallow chamber, intricate detailing and mysterious markings had comments buzzing — and for good reason.
What Is a Vinaigrette Ring, Exactly?
A vinaigrette ring is a small locket-like ring with a secret compartment that once stored something aromatic. Typically, a sponge or cloth soaked with vinegar, herbs or perfume. It is so named after the French word for vinegar, “vinaigre.” During a period when urban sanitation was often on the wane, many people thought strong odors helped keep disease at bay and wore these rings with particular vigor in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Silver or gold were what most vinaigrette rings were made of, many delicately filigreed and ornate, with a hinged lid that opened to expose a little compartment within. Its bottom was, more often than not, equipped with a pierced grill or lattice work which allow the aroma to escape, but kept the contents contained.
The one in the Reddit post is potentially made of copper alloy and appears to have greenish oxidation inside the compartment (probably verdigris, which happens fairly often with copper). Though not as fancy as gold or silver, copper was used in jewelry and utilitarian things during the times (especially with poorer families).
A Statement of Fashion — and a Belief in Health
These rings weren’t just a fashionable way to accessorize; they were embedded in the medical thinking of the age. “His status as the inventor of this mask has gone largery unacknowledged by historians,” wrote Lawrence; he was working at a time when miasma theory, or that diseases could be contracted through “bad air” — and literally less bad air wafting into one’s nose and mouth would absolutely be a plus. The idea that good smells could keep bad things at bay was an ancient one. So wearing a vinaigrette ring before you headed into the hurly-burly, frequently malodorous world was both precaution and consolation.
Vinaigrette rings were commonly worn by the upper classes, but as production methods improved they became more prevalent. The rings sometimes contained smelling salts, which were particularly useful for reviving fainting ladies in corsets or for visits to stinky 18th-century public toilets.
Keepsake and Mourning Jewelry
The use of vinaigrette rings would change over the years. Some, though still used for fragrance, also became sentimental keepsakes. Small compartments could house a loved one’s lock of hair, or a message. In the Victorian era, mourning jewelry had evolved into a genre unto itself and rings like this were modified to commemorate deceased loved ones, providing a means of having an intimate reminder at one’s side.
That ring in the Reddit post might also fall into this category — it is likely a piece that could multitask, although it was initially perfumed and later worn to remember someone.
How to Identify One
If you see a small ring with a lid that opens to reveal a shallow, grated compartment, it’s very likely a vinaigrette ring. Look for:
- A top with hinges opening in the upward direction
- Fine filigree or pierced designs
- A smelly locule, usually damaged or corroded
- Ages past: patina, marks, or wear
- a maker’s mark/reg hallmark on the band
A Nostalgic Peek at Everyday Life
There’s something strangely romantic about these little artifacts. They recount not just the way people dressed but how they met. As well as confronted, the discomforts and dangers of their age. The vinaigrette ring treads a fine line between the functional and the ethereal — a throwback to when people used to carry their worries, not on their sleeve, but quite literally on their fingers.
So in a way, coming upon one today amounts to shaking hands with history. Whether worn as fashion, for health or to remember a loved one, these rings carry a story. And sometimes, if you’re lucky, a hint of the past.