Show rjewel or E june J une 0 0 AV AM 4 W A wo 41 V 11 A W IN m IL c Z n 17 4 by LOUISE M COMSTOCK VER hoard heard of a june without weddings or a june wedding without an elaborate trousseau J pounds pound of 0 rice wedding march and a shiny ring for the fourth finger 0 of the bride baldel ot of all the traditions surrounding the ancient and honorable rites of marriage and there are ninny many from the tell tale ring and button to in the wedding cake to prophecies cs of romance between the maid of 0 lionor nod and the best man the tradition behind the wedding ring boasts the greatest antiquity as well as the widest practice this fact may explain why the jewelry symbols of marriage today combine the lie materials we hold choicest and are anre the products or of infinite labor and skilled craftsmanship As far back as we can trace the marriage ceremony in history through the varying customs of periods and races we find that the ting ring Is the one thin thing constant in it this ring itself has changed from a plain and somewhat heavy band crudely harn hammered out of iron to ls its intricate and artistic modern form it has served as a pledge of affection and a plight of troth as well as a mark of actual union brides have worn it on wrist and thumb as well as on the fourth finger but it lias has remained a symbol of love and fidelity and an accepted part ot of the marriage cerenio ceremony ny the poet claimed that rebekah wits was the first bride to wear a wedding ring though it more inore likely was an iron bracelet that isaac gave tits Ms heaven selected bride the tombs of syria and an d egypt egypt and the relies relics of greek and roman civilizations give evidence that the custom arose among the early people of asia and egypt and passed from them into europe the married woman of egypt wore a ring set with a tiny key to symbolize bollie her custodianship of her husbands house the roman matron wore a similar ring carved with tiny knobs to represent the keys to her husbands estate or with a seal with which she sealed the doors of the wine closets against thirsty servants with all my earthly goods I 1 thee endow is apparently as venerable a part of the marriage ritual as the ring itself two thousand years ago it was customary to cu rave the nuptial ring with pretty sentiments even as it is today an ancient greet greek ring bears characters which translate Il honey loney and many a bride of the classic period wore it a band inscribed faith immortal or with the names of herself and lier her lover the bride of the roman tribune wore a ring engraved with the star or crescent that was tits his insignia Insign ln in the ruins of have been found rings eu engraved graved with two clasped hands and martin luther gave liis his bride a ring adorned with the symbols of the church cli the custom of wearing the wedding ring on tho the fourth finger of the hand may again be ascribed to the egyptians it was a common belief among them luem that a nerve ran directly from that finger to the heart the romans who believed that this nerve was a vein continued the hie practice and there haie been few deviations from it the english maid of two centuries ago may have chosen to wear her wedding band on her thumb but that was because fashion in her day demanded such an ornate affair that the customary fin finger ger would not carry it the dusky bride of india wears her wedding ring on her thumb even toda today Y but to her a ring Is necessary only during the first six weeks of marriage utter after that it Is re and shaped into a more pretentious ornament in egyptian hebrew kilebrew and very early roman literature the ring given by a youth to the maid of tits his choice seems usually to have been merely a pledge of love its use for the plighting alighting plight ing of troth has been definitely established as early as the second century IS C in the second century of the christian era that stern stem churchman chur climan ter berated the women of his time for wearing any other ornament than the ring given them by their future husbands the earliest german governments ern ments provided that a check be made on those who gave engagement rings to determine that reality should succeed romance manee ro both chaucer and shakespeare mention the interchanging of tings rings as a promise of marriage the same ring served for both betrothal and marriage until a comparatively recent date indeed it was not until the Cromwel Cromwe llan illan era in england that the custom of buying two rings became common among those who could afford it the trend today seems to be towards more rind better rings ring for it now has become common for the groom to receive a ring in a double ring ceremony and there Is considerable evidence that men will soon snort begin to wear engagement rings as well while the lie exchange of the wedding baud band has long ton been customary in germany and an other european E and was for centuries an essential part of ft the greek greck church ritual it has received new BY it IPA IL 11 0 ta ka vv A ak lellot 40 M y 7 9 impetus from the modern spirit which claims perfect equality for loth both parties in the union ovid roman poet ot of the first century wrote of a ring soon destined to encircle the finger ot of a beauteous girl a ring having no worth except the love ot of the giver lie ile sang obviously of 0 ills his beloved corinna Cor inua and of a ring of 0 little intrinsic value for until shortly after liis his time rings lings were of iron brass silver agate and other materials but seldom of gold and even after the first century gold rings were worn only by the wealthy the early italian craftsman benvenuto Gen venuto cellini wrought in gold with consummate skill but lie worked only for popes and kings I 1 with the invention of plating processes gold became a practical as well na as the most precious metal and was adopted universally tor for the wedding ring not until 1000 was the substantial wide gold ring replaced by a narrower and more ornate end of 0 platinum today considered the most durable beautiful and malleable of metals the jeweler designates as an engagement ring one of which the part encircling the finger Is narrow enough for a wedding ring to be worn beside it true to its tradition the modern engagement ring Is elaborate the original key replaced by a diamond the paradoxical symbol of innocence find and power the modern wedding ring is either carved with orange blossoms ivy or oak or set with tiny diamonds diamonds are pure pare carbon sort ot of sublimated white coal being carbon they have a grain like that of wood which Is to the jeweler their most important characteristic for the grain of the diamond technically described as its lines of cleavage allow this substance which is so liard hard it can be cut only by another diamond to be manipulated in a way otherwise impossible diamond cutting was once a tedious process the rubbing of two diamond surfaces together by hand annd until the proper planes were attained the angular chunks thus eliminated were wasted whereas the modern method of cutting by machine preserves them to be cut into smaller stones it ads was by perfecting a diamond alamond cutting machine so BO accurate that the minute stones used so much today la in stone paved jewelry often so small that it takes tabes from to of them to make up a 0 carat in weight and an ounce requires carats barats that new kew york city about the time ot of the world war succeeded amsterdam rolland holland as the diamond cutting center of the world even though modern machinery Is almost foolproof fool proof so that one man can superintend as many as 20 machines at once diamond cutting Is still a laborious process in which the slightest miscalculation may mean disaster and in fit spite of rigid economy almost CA GO per cent of the original stone Is lost the rough stone must first be subjected to expert examination to determine its greatest possibilities once the lines of 0 cleavage have been decided upon and flaws located the expert scratches on the surface with another diamond the die lines on which it should be split the cleaver next nest adjusts tits his steel wedge along these scratches and strikes upon it with a mallet upon the lie direction force and snap of his blow depends the future value of the stone thus roughly lopped luto into the hie shape the diamond Is cemented to the end ot of a metal tong tone thus fixed beyond the possibility of 0 vibration the tong Is clamped into the arm of the file dawid sawing machine adjusted to operate for only the required distance and the cutten cutting begins A disk of bronze the hardest metal alloy known measuring inch in thickness revolving some three thousand to four thousand times a minute and charged with olle olive oil and diamond dust I 1 bites slowly into the stone it takes such a n saw an entire day to work through one carat of diamond as far about as across an ordinary pencil lead the smaller facets we tire ground off on a coriz horizontal disk of iron charged with oil and dust embedded in n this comparatively soft metal to offer friction and revolving two thousand four hundred times a minute platinum settings are made to fit a particular stone platinum comes to the jeweler in a button so called because of the rounded shape given it by the crucible of Iles hessian sand in which the hot metal Is cooled or rolled out in a thin sheet platinum for rings Is again rolled between two wheels grooved to allow square openings between them into rods approximately as talk thick as the band of 0 a ring it Is with them the craftsman works the rod Is first bent round around a mold of I 1 prescribed finger size for a weddin wedding ring it Is soldered together with palladium a kindred metal which melts nt at a few degrees less than degrees Fahren fahrenheit helt the melting point of platinum when the setting Is wider than the band it must mast be built up of another piece of platinum fixed in place on the band with wires and soldered securely the ring Is rounded and openings are made with a saw no thicker than a horsehair horse borse hair held taut between the ends of a brace the shape of a flattened V U when a box opening must be made for a stone a liole hole Is bored through the alie metal and the saw strung through the craftsman Is guided gilldes only by tits his eye a pair of tongs for measuring the stone to be fitted and the artists design on tissue or celluloid before him film the modern diamond set wedding band Is grooved all the way around the bottom of the groove perforated to allow an opening tor for the bottom of each stone the finest of our modern engraved rings are also handmade hand made carved out with a mechanical perpendicular bore that Is 13 guided by hand when the ring has been washed in water and polished on a rapidly revolving buffer it Is ready to be set the smaller stones are beaded into the bo box c opening prepared for them by font bom almost invisible but nevertheless secure projections pushed down over them from the surrounding platinum when the stone Is large it la Is set in fine claws so that it may stand alone in its beauty and reflect light from as many sides as possible and la 13 set oft off only by a body guard of sni smaller aller stones set with geometric simplicity in the shank of 0 the aln ring such a ring and an accompanying wedding band set bet with stones to match are the june 1928 1028 version of those these age old symbols of 0 love and marriage |