Rings are the most commonly surviving medieval jewels. They were worn by both sexes, across all levels of society. Some portraits show wearers with multiple rings across all their fingers. Jewels were also believed to have protective powers. The phrases engraved around this gold ring were thought to protect the wearer against the dangers of epilepsy, toothache and the perils of the sea. A 14th century English manuscript in the Royal Library of Stockhom explains the phrase 'Ananizapta' as a cure for the falling sickness ‘Sey yis word anamzaptus in his ere qwha he is fallyn down in yt ewyll, and also in awomanys ere anamsapta, t yei schall nevere more aftir fele yt ewyll’. (‘Say this word anamzaptus in his ear when he is falling down in the evil and also in a woman’s ear anamzapta, and ye shall never more after feel the evil’). The ‘falling sickness’ or ‘evil’ probably referred to epilepsy, a condition whose cause was not understood.

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.

Edmund Waterton used the fortune which was made by his family’s involvement in the British Guiana sugar plantations to put his collection together. His grandfather owned a plantation known as Walton Hall and his father, Charles Waterton, went to Guiana as a young man to help run La Jalousie and Fellowship, plantations which belonged to his uncles. When slavery was abolished in the British territories, Charles Waterton claimed £16283 6s 7d in government compensation and was recorded as having 300 slaves on the Walton Hall estate.