What was the first engagement ring

Victorian engagement rings often feature whimsical and romantic motifs, such as hearts, bows, flowers and even snakes which were believed to be a symbol of eternity. Toward the end of the Victorian era, diamonds became a more common feature of engagement rings, after a massive deposit of diamonds was discovered in South Africa.

The Edwardian era saw engagement rings become a widely accepted social norm. The industrial revolution had brought about increased prosperity, and a growing middle class in much of Europe and America. Fine jewelry became within reach of more people than ever before. Edwardian engagement often contained diamonds in thin and ornate platinum designs. They frequently feature diamonds set in platinum or white gold and often featured colorful precious gems such as sapphires and rubies.

Despite the hardships of World War II, s engagement rings were often big and bold. The sentimental Victorians popularized ornate engagement ring designs that mixed diamonds with other gemstones, precious metals, and enamels. The opening of the DeBeers mines in Africa made diamonds more accessible. In the s, when demand for diamond rings declined in the U. Eventually, Rhodes died in leaving the business to Ernest Oppenheimer.

He would have to promote the illusion: that they were necessary. Now they needed control over their hearts too. It is also the only piece of jewellery we tend to see a personal, romantic and lifelong attachment too.

This idea was invented for us, not by us. Da Beers managed to create a product that has never lost its value since the day they took control of the industry 80 years ago. They did this by starting with a precedent. As mentioned above, in , eighteen-year-old Archduke Maximillian proposed to his great love, Mary of Burgundy, with the first-ever faceted diamond engagement ring. After this, the two lovers are alleged to have started the tradition of the diamond engagement ring. When I decided to propose to the woman who is now my wife, I gave a lot of thought to how I was going to do it.

Not only did a diamond ring seem the logical—nay, the inevitable—choice, but I had just the very diamond. My grandfather had scrounged up enough money to buy a diamond ring for my grandmother in the early s, and the stone had passed to me when he passed away. It was a beautiful moment—a gesture of love and commitment spanning generations.

I was a century-old marketing campaign, actualized. Every so often, an article comes along that makes you thoroughly rethink a rote practice. That invention is surprisingly recent: Epstein traces its origins to the discovery of massive diamond mines in South Africa in the late 19th century, which for the first time flooded world markets with diamonds.