The seal in this Indian ring is made of an emerald of high quality which probably came from Colombia. It is inscribed (in reverse calligraphy) with a Persian verse from the Golestan, or Rose Garden, of the Iranian poet Sa'di, and translates "O Nightingale bring us the tidings of Spring". It is therefore obviously linked with the Iranian Nowruz, or New Year, which takes place on the first day of Spring. It may have been a seal used for marking a Nowruz gift, or have been a gift made to mark an important event such as a birth which took place at Nowruz.
It is set in a gold collet held in a ring made of six cobras whose bodies enclose the emerald, and form the hoop of the ring, and thus intriguingly combines a style familiar from South Indian traditions with the emerald seal which seems to be Iranian. Both are probably 18th century in date. The ring was formerly in the Indian Museum and was transferred to the South Kensington Museum, later renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum, in 1879.