This French ring is formed of the bodies of two snakes, one of gold and one of platinum. Snakes were a popular device in jewellery, partly because their sinuous shape could be wrapped around the neck, arm or finger. The jeweller has exploited the contrast in colour between the gold and the silvery platinum. Platinum was not widely used in jewellery until the late nineteenth century as it needs to be heated to a very high temperature to work it.

Snakes have been used in jewellery since the ancient Egyptians. They were associated with healing deities such as Isis in Egypt or the Greek God of medicine, Asclepius. They symbolised regeneration, healing and rebirth and therefore were used as a symbol of eternity. According to Christian beliefs, the snake tempted Adam and Eve into sin and led to their expulsion from the Garden of Eden and the snake was also one of the incarnations of the devil. Although the association with healing remained, in particular with the symbol of the staff and snake used by physicians, snakes were not commonly used in medieval jewellery. The renewed interest in the classical world which characterised the Renaissance did lead to a gradual return of snakes to fashion. This association with regeneration and eternity led to their use on both love and mourning jewellery in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Queen Victoria's engagement ring was a snake with emerald eyes.

Snake rings were worn by men and women in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The British kind George IV (1762-1830) was painted wearing a snake ring in a portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence in the Wallace Collection.