The History of Wedding Rings - Precious Metals

 The History of Wedding Rings - Precious Metals 


The start of the history of wedding rings is different in different traditions, symbolising betrothal, commitment or an exchange of wealth. Originally, bands would have been made of iron or bronze, with silver and gold rings only for the upper classes. In the 15th century, rings made of gold and diamond were available only to royalty and nobility. Rings crafted before the Georgian era are incredibly rare and are generally found only in museums. 

Georgian era (1714-1830) rings were inspired by Greek designs, shaped with intricate designs and included acorns, flowers, doves and other aesthetic and detailed metalwork. They were normally 18 karat gold, with 10, 15, or 22 karat gold also sometimes used, although the lesser karat golds were not technically legal to sell. Before 1750, all rings were created by hand-crafted alloys and sand-casting methods. However, the creation of machines which could cut out the hard work were invented at this time.

After 1854, there was a change in the gold that rings were generally made from, due to the manufacture of 15, 12 and 9/10 karat gold becoming legal. This is an important date for antique wedding ring shoppers to be aware of. Rings created in the early Victorian era (1837-1860) were generally bold and bright, incorporating gemstones. The Victorian snake ring and rings with celtic designs were popular in the early Victorian era, with engagement rings normally incorporating the bride’s birthstone.  

The mid/late Victorian era (1860-1901), saw an increase in silver being used for setting stones in rings and the first use of platinum. The passing of different karat golds was becoming more visible. Rose-gold became a new popular favourite and rings were often styled featuring stars, daisies, bees and hearts. In 1870, South African diamond mines were opened, increasing the popularity and availability of this stone. The solitaire engagement ring made its first debut in this era.

Edwardian era (1901-1910) rings are recognised as light and lacy and through their use of platinum and diamonds, with this being the first era where platinum (for the entire ring) became widely available. 

Art deco (1915-1935) rings incorporated popular cubism themes of this time, with geometric designs with strict linear styles. They are highly colourful pieces combined with Egyptian, Oriental and African styles.


During the ear of retro rings and WWII (1935-1945), platinum disappeared from use, with white gold mixed with silver and palladium alloys coming into commercial use, and wartime restrictions came into play in Britain.

‘Utility’ wedding rings were developed, which were limited to a maximum mass of two pennyweights (just over 3 grams), made from 9 karat gold. To demonstrate compliance with the wartime regulations, The Regional Assayer Office hallmarked the wedding rings, guaranteeing their gold content, which can be found next to the date on the inside of the band (the hallmark resembles a ‘U’ or ‘( )’ ).

Only recently have rings from the 1950’s been recognised for their unique design and have been given ‘antique’ status. It was during the 1950’s that the DeBeers Company advertised the slogan ‘Diamonds are Forever.’ The slogan was a hit and the post-war economic boom resulted in Post-War Modern era (post 1950’s) rings being defined by their large diamonds and use of diamond clusters.

Personally, I think I'd quite like some of these (particularly the Victorian and art-deco) styles to make a comeback!

Alice 

Comments

  1. JeanieFebruary 19, 2021 at 7:55 AM

    Oh this is cool. I like art deco best I think!

    ReplyDelete
  2. BridgetFebruary 20, 2021 at 8:04 AM

    It's not us you'll have to tell ... 😉. I think Victorian and art Deco look nice on small hands

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Four Idols

Image
  Francis Bacon was an English scholar and philosopher who lived from 1561 To 1626. Amongst other things he wrote and thought about thinking.   I was Googling “idols” and Francis Bacon’s Four Idols kept cropping up, so I read a bit about them and it seemed very difficult and complicated. Then I kept on reading about them and actually it’s not that difficult, in fact I think it’s really interesting.   As I said, Francis Bacon thought about thinking and, long before the birth of modern psychology, he understood that the human mind doesn’t always reason correctly. He argued that this fact needed to be understood before new ideas could be developed.   He advocated using inductive reasoning and experiments to gain insight and to prove or disprove a theory.   He wrote a book called Novum Organum and in it he outlined the Four Idols which (I think) basically described four major errors in mental processing that result in obstacles to new and innovative thinkin...
Read more
Image
  Propagation, oo-oo-oo Propagation Propagation's what you need, If you want to plant a seed, make a rose bush or a reed, Propagation’s what you need! If you’d like to make new roots, or grow some tasty fruits, Propagation’s what you need! If you want to grow a plant, but think that you can’t, Oo-oo propagation's what you need! Do you want to be a propagate-er, Ooooo!!! For those of a certain age, you may have broken into song. Memories of Roy Castle and the McWhirter brothers on Record Breakers have been (dare I say it?) propagated in your mind!   Plants for free! There are lots of different ways in which plants can be propagated; the most common is by sowing seeds, after all, this is how it is usually done in nature. Because seed production relies on flowers producing seed by combining male pollen with female ovule, the resulting seed may produce a plant with different coloured flowers from the mother plant’s, leaves might be larger or smaller, ...
Read more