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Posy Ring Inscribed Neuer(sic) look but remember A S c.17th-18th century. © The Trustees of the British Museum

A posy (or posie or poesy) ring is a golden hoop ring of simple design - usually rounded on the outside - with engraved poesy phrases on the inside as "forget not who loveth thee" or "A loveing wife a happy life" and were given to express love, regards or other expressions of sentiments. Given as love tokens from the fifteenth century, they evolved into plain gold wedding bands during the eighteenth century.

Sources consulted

• Dalton, O.M. Catalogue of finger rings, British Museum. 1912