There is a little history of Diamond Rings.   Let’s start with the year and country that started the trend. The Hungarian queen’s crown was made in 1047 AD.  This started the trend for making diamonds into jewelry.  In 1477 the Archduke Maximillian of Austria started the trend for engagement diamond rings.  He gave one to his future bride Mary of Burgandy. This sparked an interest in Europe among the nobility. Diamonds were used in crowns and royal jewels. The women in Europe also started wearing diamonds for different social events they attended.

It wasn’t until the 1930’s that diamonds were popular in the United States.  The United States in 1947 started doing ads featuring Hollywood stars wearing diamonds such as Elizabeth Taylor.  “ A Diamond Is Forever” was the new slogan.  The slogan was created by Ayer & Son.  The engagement ring became the most sought out piece of jewelry for women. Men had no problem spending their salary to purchase diamond engagement rings for their future bride.  At this point they were now sold in a lot of department stores.   Jewelry stores started going into business and specialized in diamond engagement rings and of course they could sell them for more money than a department store.  

Diamond rings never go out of style.  Little girls dream of the day they would receive one.  The most exciting day in a girl’s life is when she is proposed to and her boyfriend gets down on one knee and pops open the box with the ring.  A lot of hugs, kisses and tears go along with that special day that will be remembered forever.  There are two descriptions on what your new title is.  For women they are the fiancée and the men are fiancé.  The French came up with this scenario.

There are so many different styles and sizes of a diamond ring.  Just a few designers are Tiffany & Co., Cartier, Neil Lane, Verragio, Benchmark and Danhov.  There are many more, all depending on how much money you want to spend.  A few different shapes are the different cuts. The oval cut, pear cut, round cut, square cut, princess cut, Cushion cut, and Radiant cut.  Another important thing about the diamond ring is the color, clarity, carat size and the certification of the ring.  It is the preference of the bride to be and what catches her eye.  It will be her ring forever.  

The five C’s of the diamond ring.  This will be the deciding factor on what kind of ring to buy.

The Cut of the diamond will determine how much brightness there is.  The amount of light the ring has the more it will look brilliant.

Most of the cuts are done by hand versus machine.  It is easier to do many different shapes by hand.

Most diamonds are white or colorless.  They are classified from letter D to Z.  The closer a diamond is to D means it is colorless and the closer it gets to Z it has a slight yellow or brown tint.  The D classification is the most beautiful, and more valuable.

The Clarity will have the different appearances of the diamond.  Any small marks in the diamond will show.  The best diamond is one that is very clear with no imperfections.   There grades of Clarity ranging from flawless to visible marks that you can see.   The flawless diamond is also more valuable.

The carat size is the weight of the diamond.  Most people can get confused with this and think it means the size of the diamond.   The carat weight determines the value of the diamond.

This comes from the laboratory to confirm the characteristics so that you know a real diamond and the value of it.         

The history of diamond rings are almost as old as time. Hope this article has helped you discover how interesting the history of the diamond ring actually is. And though it is about history it may be helpful in the decision on making a future purchase!