It was important for early Christians to bear witness their faith by avoiding pagan Gods and symbols and using more Christian motifs on jewellery and personal seals. Clement of Alexandria, writing around 200 AD, described the type of jewellery appropriate for a Christian:

"And let our seals be either a dove, or a fish, or a ship running with a fair wind, or a musical lyre which Polycrates used, or a ship's anchor, which Seleucus had engraved; and if the seal is a fisherman, it will recall the apostle, and the children drawn out of the water. For we are not to depict the faces of idols, we who are prohibited from attaching ourselves to them, nor a sword, nor a bow, since we follow peace, nor drinking cups, since we are temperate. Many of the licentious have their (homosexual) lovers engraved, or prostitutes, as if they wished to make it impossible ever to forget their erotic passions, by being continually reminded of their licentiousness" (Paedagogus, 3.59.2 - 3.60.1)

The designs suggested by Clement were not used exclusively by Christians, they would have been part of the stock of gem engravers and sculptors but they could be interpreted in a Christian way. The dove, carved on this ring holding a branch, was one of the most popular and widespread Christian symbols, found carved and painted on the walls of the Catacombs in Rome. It may have been chosen as it was the bird which brought an olive branch to Noah on his ark, signalling that land was near or as the sign of the Holy Spirit which descended on Jesus at his baptism. Doves are not common on engraved gems but are seen more frequently on rings with bronze bezels, sometimes with a chi-rho monogram. The device on this ring which has been interpreted as a star may perhaps have been intended as a chi-rho monogram- an abbreviation of the first letters of Christ.

This ring forms part of a collection of 760 rings and engraved gems from the collection of Edmund Waterton (1830-87). 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.