Single Cut Signet Rings

A Victorian 18ct yellow gold carnelian signet ring. The signet ring is set with an oval carnelian, leading to a reeded shank. The ring is h...

A George V 18ct yellow gold banded onyx signet ring. The signet ring is set with an oval banded onyx, which is grey and black in colour, leading to a reeded shank. The ring is hallm...

A vintage 10 karat yellow gold carnelian rectangle signet ring. This gent's pinky ring features a rectangular tablet carnelian set in a tapered s...

A pretty antique, late Victorian era mourning ring. This is an initial ring with an applied gold letter M, lightly engraved and set on a rich black onyx panel. The ring has decorat...

Queen Victoria was famously in love with her husband, Prince Albert. When he died, she entered a period of mourning that lasted for the next forty years, wearing black dresses and black "mourning" jewelry. This might sound horribly depressing to our modern ears but it did not sound horribly depressing to Victorian English ears. In the same way that today, if Kate Middleton wears a specific scarf by a specific designer that specific scarf sells out worldwide in five minutes, so, too, did the citizens of Victorian-era England look to their monarch to set the style tone. Mourning jewelry had existed for hundreds of years. It was worn as a way to remember and honor a loved one who had passed. But mourning jewelry exploded in popularity during Victoria's reign and quite suddenly, necklaces, bracelets, brooches featuring onyx, jet, pearls, dark garnets, old diamonds and gold were all the rage. The ring you see here is an especially elegant example of an English Victorian-era mourning ring. An oval plaque of glossy black onyx serves as the background for a "coach lantern" form created in gold and set with a row of four single-cut diamonds. The diamonds provide a source of illumination for the coach lantern so that it can light your way through the darkness. Surrounding the onyx we find 24 faceted jet stones set into silver atop gold. The 15K yellow gold shank features decorated shoulders and a simple band the rest of the way around. I love mourning jewelry. Not just because through our modern eyes, it's monotone chic; I love mourning jewelry for what it is: a jewel to remember and honor a loved one who has passed. If we're honest, none of us ever "gets over" the loss of a loved one That doesn't happen. What happens is, we continue to move forward through time, through our lives. But the love we felt for that person, our memories of them; these travel with us through life. Mourning jewelry was —and still ought to be— a way of not forgetting. And a way of saying, "don't tell me I should be 'healed' by now." This magnificent antique Victorian mourning ring...

A French ring circa 1930 with an 18 carat white gold tapering shank with geometric form and three raised ridges to a panel of platinum set with twenty old single cut diamonds with a ...