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.

Onno Boekhoudt (1944-2002) received a traditional goldsmiths' training at Schoonhoven and Pforzheim. This technical training underpins his work, but he is known for his experimental and highly individual approach to jewellery, and his appreciation of a wide variety of natural materials. His approach is that of an artist. He has spoken of a fascination with circles and holes, and this is perhaps why rings are amongst his most typical pieces. Working across widely varying scales, the studies for these rings were often worked out first on cylindrical sections of tree-trunks.

Onno Boekhoudt was an influential teacher as well as a maker - at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, at the Royal College of Art in London, and through numerous visiting lectureships around the world.