North Bay Woman

40 NORTH BAY WOMAN | S U M M E R 2 0 1 5 Jewelry with H eart with eart with eart with Above: Rafael Jewelers in San Rafael has offered timeless collections that will last a lifetime. Rings shown in the charcoal display are rings from A. Jaffe, best known for their classic ring design in 18K gold with perfectly matched diamonds. – Photo by Stuart Lirette. Above and to the left: In the red displays are handmade rings by Danhov. Danhov rings have a truly creative design as shown by the highly innovative spiral designed engagement ring called the "Abbracia." – Photos at left provided by Rafael Jewelers. By Judith M. Wilson A wedding ring is a tiny piece of jewelry, often simple, and yet its symbolism is unparal- leled. Its perfect circle with neither beginning nor end represents everlasting love and the promise of lifelong commitment, and those sentiments put the ring at the heart of the wed- ding ceremony. People haven't always worn wedding rings. Men in ancient Egypt fashioned rings out of reeds to give to the women they loved, putting them on the fourth fi nger of the left hand be- cause they believed it had a vein leading to the heart. The rings didn't last, given their fragile nature, and eventually precious metals came into vogue, giving rings permanence. Dia- mond engagement rings found a place in the spotlight, when Archduke Maximilian of Austria presented one to Marie of Burgundy with his proposal in 1477, and they grew in popularity after Cecil Rhodes founded the DeBeers Mining Company in South Africa in 1873, making diamonds more readily available. Men's wedding rings are a much newer fashion. They became popular in the 1940s, when soldiers went to war wearing rings to hold close the memory of the love they left at home.

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