Finger ring, posy ring

This gold 'posy' ring (that is, one with an inscription), set with a spinel (the stone), has a love message inscribed around the outside. It says 'pour amor, say douc', meaning 'for love, so sweet'. The inscription is in French, the language of courtly love in medieval times. It seems to have been quite common for those who could afford it to give posy rings as symbols of love - the medieval poet Chaucer mentions, in his 'Legend of Good Women', the sending of letters, brooches and rings to a woman. This ring was found on the Thames foreshore at Bankside.