The diamonds were taken from the engagement ring of Ann Stringer Dawson in 1912. She married James Arden Grant (1885-1973) in December 1913.

James Arden Grant was a member of the Royal Society of British Portrait Painters, the Royal Society of Painter Etchers and Engravers, and was also President of the Pastel Society from 1945 for some years. When he had the ring remounted in 1932, he was teaching part time at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, of which he became Vice Principal. Henry George Murphy was Principal of the School when James Grant asked him to reset his wife's engagement ring in a more fashionable manner. H.G. Murphy was one of the leading silversmiths of the first half of the twentieth century. He was apprenticed to Henry Wilson and then taught at the Central School of Arts and Crafts and at the Royal College of Art. He set up his own business, the 'Falcon Studio', which had a shop on London's Marylebone High Street.

Ian Grant (the vendor) was a distinguished architect, a committe member of the Victorian Society and the son of J.A. Grant. He brought in his mother's ring as part of the Museum's appeal for Art Deco jewellery.