Although primarily a painter, Alan Davie (1920-2014) produced jewellery during the 1940s and 1950s and was an influential teacher on the Design course at London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts. The Central School's principal, Edward Johnson, asked artists such as Alan Davie and Mary Kessel to teach on the Jewellery Course in order to encourage the students to take a more artistic approach to their work. Davie had a prior interest in the subject, having studied painting and silversmithing at the Edinburgh College of Art, where he won a travelling scholarship - postponed for seven years due to the Second World War but which eventually took him to Italy.

Alan Davie's jewellery was sold through shops like Aspreys and Harrods as well as to private clients. He also made the jewellery worn by Vivien Leigh in the play 'Anthony and Cleopatra'. He was an accomplished saxophonist who played jazz professionally with an Edinburgh based swing band and later with major improvisers of the day such as Barry Guy, Tony Oxley and Evan Parker.

He had a strong interest not only in Italian early Renaissance art but also in the work of Jackson Pollock. He also appreciated pre-Columbian goldwork and Ashanti gold weights, an influence which may perhaps be seen in the strong, simple forms of his bird ring.

This ring was shown at the International Exhibition of Modern Jewellery, which was organised jointly by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and the V&A in 1961. It covered the decades from 1890 to 1961, with more than 1,000 exhibits representing a tremendous variety of styles. The organisers aimed to demonstrate the artistic potential of jewellery. They also hoped to reverse the depressed state of the British jewellery trade, which had suffered from wartime austerity measures and prohibitive purchase taxes. There was a strong emphasis on the contemporary, including pieces by artist-craftsmen and idiosyncratic pieces by painters and sculptors, as well as objects from the major jewellery houses.