Ring

This ring forms part of a collection of 154 gems and 41 cameos and engraved stones bequeathed to the V&A by the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend, a cleric and poet. Sir A. H. Church who compiled the first catalogue Precious Stones: A Guide to the Townshend Collection (1883) gave additional specimens in 1913. The stones are mounted as rings, perhaps as a means of display and safekeeping rather than to be worn.