Several legends seek to explain the origins of Valentine’s Day; they may not all be true, but they are all romantic. Some say the day has links to the feast of Lupercalia in ancient Rome, where young people paired up by drawing names from a hat. The feast was later renamed for St. Valentine, a…
If you’re planning to take Grandma’s ring to a pawn shop to sell, it might help to know if the stone is real or Grandma was just fooling everybody all these years. Some simple home tests can illuminate the truth: Print that: Place a loose stone on top of magazine print; if you can read…
When we lose a loved one, we often worry that they won’t be remembered, particularly if we’re talking about our children and a grandparent they may not have had many years with. It’s important for parents, even as they’re coping with their own grief, to know that the task of keeping Grandma’s memory alive falls…
Last week we talked about the provenance of halo jewelry and its resurgence in popularity. That popularity is particularly evident in engagement rings. Why? Because in a halo setting, quarter-, third-, or half-carat diamonds can look up to as much as half a carat larger, and who does want to up their ooh and aah…
Halo jewelry is believed to have made its debut in the 1920, alongside the Art Deco style, and the style has had a resurgence of late. The settings—which are found in rings, earrings, pendants, and broaches—feature a ring (which is not always circular) of precious gems or metal around a larger center stone. Center stones…
Chances are you have a tennis bracelet in your jewelry box, but do you know how it got its name? At the 1987 U.S. Open, tennis star Chris Evert snapped her bracelet clasp during a match, then asked the officials to pause the match until she found it—and the eternity diamond bracelet got a new…
The diamond solitaire, for all its simplicity, is jewelry at its most mesmerizing. Though the rich and famous might sport diamond pendants of mammoth proportions, solitaires are not a luxury reserved for the upper class. Featuring anything from a square-cut white diamond to a pear-shaped blue, a solitaire pendant is all about the glamour and…
Though engagement rings are getting fancier and fancier—colored stones, diamond-studded bands, and complex custom designs—diamond solitaires remain popular for their timeless, classic elegance. Solitaires accommodate any diamond shape and match well with any wedding band, and if your bride-to-be hasn’t told you exactly what kind of ring she wants, they’re also the safest choice that’s…
One of the choices to make in buying diamonds is cut (one of the 4 Cs), and one such cut is the marquise, a football shape named for the Marquise of Pompadour. But as the story goes, the shape has nothing to do with a football; allegedly, Louis XIV had a diamond cut to resemble…
Though diamond gifts are traditionally looked on as promises of love, their position as the hardest substance known to man has also made them a symbol of invincibility, said to bring wearers protection and health. Once signifying wealth, diamonds are now enjoyed by everyone—not just the betrothed. If you’ve got a loved one with an…