For Eternal Love, you just need the right jewellery…

Signifying an everlasting love, eternity rings are a way of showing continued devotion to another. Traditionally, they usually follow on from an engagement ring, then wedding band, and adorn the same finger. So, it makes sense that the origins of eternity rings should be all about love, romance, and lasting commitment. Doesn’t it?

I want to tell you that eternity rings only came about because couples across history decided to offer jewellery to each other as a symbol of their timeless adoration for one another. Over time, after starting a family or reaching a relationship milestone, came the gift of a beautiful ring decorated with sparkling gems around a band of precious metal to cement the occasion. To represent enduring affection. That would be lovely. But the reality is, the modern tradition was actually conceived to boost diamond sales.

Whilst rings representing eternal love can be traced back as far as the ancient Egyptians, the style we now associate with eternity bands became popular in the mid 20^th century. Already famous for their successful slogan ‘A diamond is forever’, diamond merchant De Beers devised a clever marketing campaign to help shift their large supply of diamonds around 0.25 carats and less. As these diamonds were very small, which was in contrast to the trend at the time for larger solitaire rings, the company needed to come up with different strategy.

By designing an ‘eternity’ ring, with multiple identical stones set around half or the whole piece, and advertising it as a must-have gift from husbands to their wives, they successfully promoted the idea that with enduring love comes more diamonds. Later investigations did uncover evidence of De Beers making a secret deal with Russia to buy the majority of their uncut diamonds from them (which were coincidentally around 0.25 carats and less), in return for a ‘single channel’ controlling the world’s supply. Hence the abundance of small diamonds. Not a particularly romantic origin story for the modern eternity ring design, so we won’t dwell on that too much.

So, prior to De Beers big marketing push, what did eternity rings look like? The ancient Egyptian rings depicted an infinite love and often showed a looped snake (known as an ouroboros) biting its own tail to create an endless circle. Embellished commitment rings became more popular with the Romans, who enjoyed showing their wealth with precious gemstone designs. Precious metal ‘Keeper’ style rings also began to represent love, as they were worn with the wedding ring to stop it slipping off.

By the 19th century, gifting an eternity ring after marriage had become more synonymous with today’s custom. Rings were ornately set with coloured gemstones and were presented with the sentiment of undying devotion. Style trends evolved, but as the rings were designed to be worn with engagement and wedding bands their design and shape were influenced by them. And then came De Beers…

Perhaps knowing how contemporary eternity rings came about may prompt ideas to break the mould. Change the narrative. Rebel against the norm and go bespoke! If you want to discuss a truly unique design for your eternity ring, contact me for a chat. Or, if you are still enchanted by the appeal of a diamond-frosted full (or half) eternity band, I can create this for you. Ultimately, the choice is yours.