The art of engraving gemstones can be traced back to ancient Greece in the 8th century BC and earlier. Techniques passed down to the Egyptians and then to the Romans. There were major revivals of interest in engraved gems in Europe during the Byantine era, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and again in the 18th and 19th centuries. At each stage cameos and intaglios, these skillful carvings on a minute scale, were much prized and collected, sometimes as symbols of power mounted in jewelled settings, sometimes as small objects for private devotion or enjoyment.

This ring holds a layered onyx cameo of the mischievous god of love, Cupid, lighting his torch at an altar. The scene is carved using the layers of the onyx to pick the figures out in white against a brown background.

The ring was part of the collection of gemstones and engraved hardstones bequeathed to the V&A by the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend in 1869. Many of Townshend's rings were set in plain, standard hoops but this ring has the curved setting fashionable in the early nineteenth century.