In the ancient world, intaglio rings frequently represented more than beautiful jewelry. Through their images and symbols, they identified the political or social standing of the wearer, religious beliefs, or intellectual leanings. As with jewelry today, such rings were sometimes tokens of love or friendship, visible manifestations of human affection. This splendid gem, worn at the height of the Roman Empire, depicts a bird, perhaps a thrush or a nightingale. Whose finger might it have adorned so long ago, and what meaning did it hold for them? Though we can never know for certain, when we wear this superb ring we touch in some intimate way upon the vanished world of the past.