A large gold signet ring

The combination of the stock (tree stump) and tun (barrel) motifs engraved on the bezel has led to the suggestion that the design of the ring is a rebus for a wearer with the surname Stockton (S.J. Phillips, loc. cit.).

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.