Once on a train, I saw a man gesticulating to his companion and couldn’t help but notice his huge yellow stone ring with gold writing or an insignia on it. Was it ecclesiastical, or a free mason’s or some other society? I have always been fascinated by the meaning behind jewellery, and rings in particular, as they are powerful symbols showing status at a distance.
Engagement rings
In the sixties, an advert running in many magazines proclaimed ‘a diamond is forever’ – long before the 1971 James Bond film of the similar name. The advert was for solitaire engagement rings, a single stone symbolising eternity, and originated in the De Beers 1947 diamond advertising campaign. Marilyn Monroe made the song ‘Diamonds are a girl’s best friend’, famous in the fifties. More recently Lady Diana’s engagement ring created a fashion that was followed by many in the years to come.
That ring, which the Duchess of Cambridge now wears, was a large Ceylon sapphire surrounded by 14 diamonds. This setting became immensely popular as an alternative to the solitaire engagement
