Beyond the Diamond

Coloured stones were the natural form of the betrothal ring. Diamonds appeared as accent stones or as one element in a multi-stone cluster, but the centrepiece was chosen for what it meant — a ruby for devotion, a sapphire for fidelity, an emerald for constancy. The serpent motif, long associated with eternity and regeneration, was already an established betrothal form. Closed-back settings in gold deepened the colour of the stones and the richness of the declaration.

The Georgian language of stones was inherited and amplified. What the Victorian era added was codification: the meanings of stones were published, discussed, and widely understood across society — not just among the wealthy, but through the popular press and the expanding middle class. Every element of a betrothal ring was chosen with intention — stone, motif, setting — and every element could be read. The serpent swept into fashion after Victoria's engagement in 1839. Hearts, flowers, and clasped hands spoke the same language as the gems they were set with. Diamonds became more accessible after the South African discoveries of the 1860s–70s and appeared with increasing frequency, but always as one voice within a richer conversation — not yet the whole of it.

The aesthetic shifted considerably — platinum replaced gold, designs became lighter, lacier, and more architectural — but the language of stones carried over. Sapphires still meant devotion, rubies passion, emeralds vitality, pearls purity. These meanings were applied to Edwardian betrothal rings just as they had been to Victorian ones, now expressed through platinum filigree and delicate openwork settings rather than the heavier gold of the previous era. The symbolic tradition was alive and understood, even as the visual grammar around it evolved.

Art Deco brought its own vivid palette to the betrothal ring — rubies, sapphires, and emeralds in bold geometric platinum settings, their colour used as architectural contrast rather than solely as sentimental declaration. The language of stones had become somewhat less formally codified, but coloured gems remained entirely standard betrothal choices, and the tradition of choosing them for meaning had not disappeared.

De Beers engages N.W. Ayer & Son in 1938 to build demand for diamond engagement rings among the American middle class. In 1947, copywriter Frances Gerety writes A Diamond is Forever — voted the greatest advertising slogan of the 20th century by Advertising Age. The campaign is an American production aimed at an American market. The idea that a ring should cost two months' salary is introduced by De Beers as a commercial benchmark — not a tradition, not a convention, but an invention. In 1940, roughly 10% of American first-time brides received a diamond ring.

The campaign rolls out internationally from the mid-1960s. The UK and European markets are reached, but with notably softer messaging than the American original — the salary rule did not travel well, and European sensibilities around practicality meant De Beers led instead with permanence and emotion. By 1990, approximately 80% of American first-time brides receive a diamond ring. In France, the campaign's reach was limited further still: the coloured stone betrothal ring never disappeared from French haute joaillerie, where it remained not an alternative but a continuation of an unbroken tradition. Princess Diana's sapphire engagement ring in 1981 — chosen from a Garrard catalogue, not a De Beers display — quietly kept another tradition alive.