16th-17th century AD. A gold D-section annular band with plain exterior, the interior with French inscription ' . . PRENES . EN . GREI .', The Anglo-Norman Dictionary glosses the phrasal verb 'prendre en gre' as 'to accept as a favour'; here we may translate 'gracioly accept [this]', the phrase is conventional, part of the idiom of amour courtois, and found inscribed on vario types of love-gift, often continuing, 'ce petit don' [this little gift]. Cf. Joan, E., English Posies and Posy Rings, OUP, London, p.43, for this inscription, min the final 'I'; cf. The British Meum, meum number 2002,0501.1, for a ring with a very similar inscription and script dated 16th-17th century AD; cf. The Portable Antiquities Scheme Database, id. KENT-B71606, and PAS-3785E3, for rings with very similar inscriptions, dated 16th-17th century AD. 2.00 grams, 19.24mm overall, 17.40mm internal diameter (approximate size British N 1/2, A 6 3/4, Europe 14.35, Japan 13) (3/4"). UK antiques market between 1974-1985. From the Albert Ward collection (part 2), Essex, UK. The miscellaneo love-token es of the phrase include a late 15th century boxwoodb in the BM, another formerly in the Londesborough Collection, a medieval ivory mirror case in the Metropolitan Meum, New York, an early 16th century enamelled plaque now in the Historisches Meum, Basel, a pair of salt-cellars enamel-painted by Pierre Reymond c.1550, and a 15th century brass knife-handle now in the Victoria & Albert Meum. A mancript of The Erle of Tolo written in the 1520s [Oxford, Bodleian, MS Ashmole 45 Part 1, f.2r.] includes a full-page presentation frontispiece depicting a well-dressed young man near a speech scroll that bears the phrase as PRENES: ENGRE, as he proffers a book (the mancript itself) to a young woman. The fashion for ing the phrase in amatory inscriptions seems not to have survived the 16th century, making that century the best estimate for dating this ring. In the medieval period many rings bore posy inscriptions in Latin or French, the languages frequently spoken by the affluent elites. Later, inscriptions in English became more ual, although the lack of standardisation in spelling might surprise the modern reader. The inscription is generally found on the interior of the ring, hidden to everyone except the wearer and most of the sentimental mottoes were taken from the popular literature of the time. In fact, love inscriptions often repeat each other, which suggests that goldsmiths ed stock phrases. In the later 16th century, ‘posy’ specifically meant a short inscription. A posy is described in contemporary literature as a short ‘epigram’ of less than one verse. George Puttenham (1589) explained that these phrases were not only inscribed on finger rings, but also applied to arms and trenchers. The practice of giving rings engraved with mottoes at betrothals or weddings wasmon in England from the 16th century onwards, and continued until the late 18th cent