A large gold signet ring

Signet rings, pressed into hot wax, were used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to seal letters and official documents such as wills or deeds. They were typically engraved with coats of arms, initials, merchant's marks, or personal symbols and worn on the forefinger or thumb. Both functional and ornamental, such rings also signified the wearer's status. A comparable example to the present lot, featuring the initials 'AF', is housed in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no. M.228-1975).