The Engagement Ring
One of ancient Western Europe's most popular traditions maintains it's popularity today. The engagement ring has been said to have dated long before Christ, but it
was in 860 AD that Pope Nicholas I proclaimed that not only
was an engagement ring required to seal the agreement to be married, but
that the engagement ring must be made of gold. The labor and monetary cost of the gold signified that the groom was willing to make a financial
sacrifice for his new bride-to-be (WWT).
A good 617 years later, the tradition
of adding a diamond to an engagement ring began. In 1477 King Maximilian presented the Mary of Burgundy
with a diamond engagement ring.
The Evolution of the Engagement Ring
Pre-History: The caveman tied cords made of braided grass around his chosen mate’s wrists, ankles, and waist, to bring her spirit under his control.
Circa 2800 BC: Egyptians were buried wearing rings made of a single silver or gold wire on the third finger of their left hands, believed to be connected directly to the heart by the vena amoris.
2nd Century BC: According to Pliny the Elder, the groom gave the bride first a gold ring to wear during the ceremony and at special events, then an iron ring to wear at home, signifying her binding legal agreement to his ownership of her.
1st Century BC: Puzzle rings first appeared in Asia then spread to the Arab world, where sultans and sheiks used them to tag each of their wives. These puzzle rings were able to fall apart when taken off and could only be put back together by its creator so a husband would insist his wife wear it so he could tell if she had been disloyal and removed the wedding ring.
1217: The bishop of Salisbury put an end to the popular practice of seducing girls into mock marriage with rings made of rushes. His solution? Declaring a marriage with a rush-ring legally binding.
1477: In one of the first recorded uses of a diamond engagement ring, Archduke Maximilian of Austria proposes to Mary of Burgundy with a ring that is set with thin, flat pieces of diamonds in the shape of an “M.”
1700s: Silver “poesy rings” (seen below) engraved with flowery sayings were in vogue in Europe. Across the Atlantic Ocean, the Puritans gave their betrotheds useful thimbles instead of rings, which are derided as frippery. Eventually, however, many thimbles get their tops sliced off and are worn as rings anyway.
1867: Diamonds are discovered in the Cape Colony (now a province in South Africa), the beginning of a huge increase in the diamond supply.
1880: Cecil Rhodes, who arrived in South Africa in 1873, founds the DeBeers Mining Company with other investors. Within the decade, they will control 90 percent of the world’s diamond production.
1886: Tiffany & Co. introduces the “Tiffany setting,” a six-prong ring designed to maximize a diamond’s brilliance by raising it up from the band.
1890s: Affordable wedding rings and diamond engagement rings appear in mail-order catalogs, such as Sears & Roebuck.
1918: Cartier creates the Trinity Ring—intertwined hoops in pink gold (love), white gold (friendship), and yellow gold (fidelity)—for Jean Cocteau, who gives one to his lover, poet Raymond Radiguet. It is still a traditional wedding ring in France.
1920s: Manufacturers and retail jewelers tried to launch the concept of men’s engagement rings, which sank like a lead balloon.
Early 1940′s: Engagement rings became the leading line of jewelry in most department stores.
Sources: World Wedding Traditions, Reader's Digest, Keli Gwyn
Loooved it. A very nice morning read. :] Oh and there's no way I'd be caught dead walking down the aisle with garlic and dill....
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