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The history of the Wedding Ring Continued from here... In early Rome it was iron that was adopted as the metal of choice rather than copper or brass as mostly elsewhere. This symbolized the strength of love a man felt for his chosen woman, though rust was a problem. The act of giving and acceptance of the ring was now also considered to be legally binding and therefore enforceable. This tied the woman as the property of the man to some views but in truth also protected her rights as bride-to-be, and was summoned upon to prevent her from having her primary position usurped by rivals. Gold or silver rings were given on occasions, to show all the bridegroom trusted his betrothed with his valuable property, and to symbolize this further, the ring was sometimes shaped as a key rather than a normal circular band. This was not presented at the wedding ceremony as the custom nowadays, but when he carried her in his arms across the threshold of her new home. After coinage gold was rapidly promoted to first choice and in later in medieval Europe gemstones were again a common addition. With rubies chosen for their color of red like a heart, sapphires, blue like the sky above, or most valued and sought after of all; the indestructible diamond. In renaissance Italy silver made a comeback, and was now selected for the new idea of the engagement, or betrothal ring. These were often highly ornate and usually inlaid with niello, (which is a very decorative form of enamel engraving, colored in black to stand in contrast to the bright metal) on a round or oval bezel. And rather than traditional simple bands, they had clasping hands emerging from the hoop at the front. Silver became more pre-eminent briefly in the seventeenth century in England and France when they were widely used for wedding rings at the height of the fashion for poesy, or posy rings; this comes from the word 'poesy' meaning a 'love poem'. They were sentimentally inscribed with such, around the band, either within or without, and often faith and hope were included in the verse as well. These were highly popular indeed, as frequent referrals to them in the works of Shakespeare prove. Gold however, began to take over again later, and pushed back silver to the Italian idea of engagement again, with a golden duplicate of the original replacing it on the wedding day. |
