This piece is part of the Royal College of Art Visiting Artists Collection. Every year from 1987 to 2006, while David Watkins was Professor of Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork and Jewellery at the RCA, he invited four jewellers and silversmiths from outside Britain to give a week-long masterclass. The artists brought diverse skills, aesthetics and approaches. The first call on their time was to interact closely with the students. In addition, although concentrating on their teaching and working in an unfamiliar studio, each artist generously made an object for the RCA's collection. The Royal College of Art Visiting Artists Collection, now transferred to the V&A, is a major document of international contemporary jewellery, a tribute both to the artists and to the vibrancy of the RCA as a teaching institution.

Gerd Rothmann (born 1941) studied at the Staatlichen Zeichenakademie in Hanau and was amongst the first artist jewellers to incorporate plastics in their work in the late 1960s. Rothmann, alongside his contemporaries Claus Bury and Fritz Maierhofer was part of the 1971 inaugural exhibition at the Electrum Gallery, London. All three broke with convention by combining a non-precious material, such as acrylic, with gold. He was one of a small group of pioneering artist-craftsmen who promoted the use of acrylic in jewellery in the early 1970s. This material complemented his enthusiasm for the bright colours and imagery of Pop Art.

After the 1970s, the focus of his work changed to include precious metals and to explore the decorative potential of finger prints and castings of other body parts. His jewellery is sometimes intensely personal- his 'Family Necklace' included the individual fingerprints of the members of the family, whilst signet rings can include the impression of the wearer's own fingerprint. His friendship or wedding rings are designed to allow one person to wear a ring set with the print of their friend or loved one. He exploits the universality of the finger print- everybody has one - to make jewels which are unique and individualised. The title of this ring is 'Mit den Fingerkuppen in Wachs modeliert' - modelled in wax with the fingerprints, suggesting to us that the fingerprints recorded are Rothmann's own, which he used to make the wax model from which the silver ring was cast.