Rings engraved with religious figures or scenes are often known as ‘iconographic rings’. They were decorated with the popular saints of the middle ages: Catherine, Barbara, Christopher, George and Margaret as well as figures of the Virgin Mary, Christ or the Three Kings. These rings were worn as a sign of faith but were also believed to offer protection from both spiritual and earthly dangers. Pregnant women prayed to St Margaret for a safe delivery whilst travellers appealed to St Christopher. Rings with a ridged hoop divided into two or three panels are generally believed to be English.

In the Nativity story, the Magi or Three Kings Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar came from the East to bear gifts for the newborn Christ. Their relics were housed in Cologne Cathedral, which became an important pilgrimage site. Invoking the names of the Kings was believed to protect against epilepsy, known as the ‘falling sickness’. Wearing a ring engraved with the figures of the Kings was thought to protect against a misunderstood and much feared sickness.

This ring forms part of a collection of over 600 rings and engraved gems from the collection of Edmund Waterton (1830-81). Waterton was one of the foremost ring collectors of the nineteenth century and was the author of several articles on rings, a book on English devotion to the Virgin Mary and an unfinished catalogue of his collection (the manuscript is now the National Art Library). Waterton was noted for his extravagance and financial troubles caused him to place his collection in pawn with the London jeweller Robert Phillips. When he was unable to repay the loan, Phillips offered to sell the collection to the Museum and it was acquired in 1871. A small group of rings which Waterton had held back were acquired in 1899.