A beautiful Ancient Roman gold ring, featuring a thin D-shaped loop and a delicate pair of dolphins, shown supporting three glass beads. From the shoulders of the ring, two dolphins rise up, with their curving bodies leading to a flared tail. The dolphins have been depicted facing down, attached to the band of the ring. They have been rendered naturalistically, with rounded eyes and snouts, enriched by a spiralling wire, wrapped around their bodies. Their tails have been pierced and a wire has been threaded through, with three glass beads suspended. Two red beads flank a green bead, further adorning the ring. Earthly encrustations, toning, tarnishing, and signs of wear as consistent with age, such as minor pitting, chipping, warping, and indentations, to the surface. As in many ancient societies, jewellery was an important social marker used to demonstrate wealth and richness. In Ancient Greek culture jewellery was worn in everyday life but was also buried with the decease as part of his or her funerary outfit. Jewellery might have been enriched by precious and semi-precious stones and decorative motives would have included popular myths, gods, goddesses, and heroes. The most common models included many zoomorphic heads, such as bulls’, lions’, goats’ heads and dolphins. Jewellery such as this was crafted for everyday use, instead of being destined exclusively to a funerary purpose. In Ancient Greek and Roman mythology dolphins were associated with the sea and with the sphere of sensual love, bearing an amatory symbolism. Because of the assonance between the ancient Greek word delphis, δελφίς, meaning dolphin, and the word delphus, δελφύς, meaning womb, dolphins were considered animals sacred to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, fertility and desire. Measurements: (circa) L 2.6cm x W 1.8cm Closest UK Ring Size: J Weight: 4.25g Provenance: Ex Cambridgeshire, UK, gentleman's collection, 1980-1990s.