The earliest diamond-cutter is frequently mentioned as Louis de Berquem de Bruges, in 1476.  But Laborde finds earlier records of the art of cutting this gem:  there was in Paris a diamond-cutter named Herman, in 1407.  The diamond cutters of Paris were quite numerous in that year, and lived in a special district known as “la Courarie, where reside the workers in diamonds and other stones.”

Finger rings almost deserve a history to themselves, for their forms and styles are legion.  Rings were often made of glass in the eleventh century.  Theophilus tells in a graphic and interesting manner how they were constructed.  He recommends the use of a bar of iron, as thick as one’s finger, set in a wooden handle, “as a lance is joined in its pike.”  There should also be a large piece of wood, at the worker’s right hand, “the thickness of an arm, dug into the ground, and reaching to the top of the window.”  On the left of the furnace a little clay trench is to be provided.  “Then, the glass being cooked,” one is admonished to take the little iron in the wooden handle, dip it into the molten glass, and pick up a small portion, and “prick it into the wood, that the glass may be pierced through, and instantly warm it in the flame, and strike it twice upon the wood, that the glass may be dilated, and with quickness revolve your hand with the same iron;” when the ring is thus formed, it is to be quickly thrown into the trench.  Theophilus adds, “If you wish to vary your rings with other colours... take... glass of another colour, surrounding the glass of the ring with it in the manner of a thread... you can also place upon the ring glass of another kind, as a gem, and warm it in the fire that it may adhere.”  One can almost see these rings from this accurate description of their manufacture.

The old Coronation Ring, “the wedding ring of England,” was a gold ring with a single fine balas ruby; the pious tradition had it that this ring was given to Edward the Confessor by a beggar, who was really St. John the Evangelist in masquerade!  The palace where this unique event occurred was thereupon named Have-ring-at-Bower.  The Stuart kings all wore this ring and until it came to George IV., with other Stuart bequests, it never left the royal Stuart line.

Edward I. owned a sapphire ring made by St. Dunstan.  Dunstan was an industrious art spirit, being reported by William of Malmsbury as “taking great delight in music, painting, and engraving.”  In the “Ancren Riwle,” a book of directions for the cloistered life of women, nuns are forbidden to wear “ne ring ne brooche,” and to deny themselves other personal adornments.

Archbishops seem to have possessed numerous rings in ancient times.  In the romance of “Sir Degrevant” a couplet alludes to: 

   “Archbishops with rings
    More than fifteen.”

Episcopal rings were originally made of sapphires, said to be typical of the cold austerity of the life of the wearer.  Later, however, the carbuncle became a favourite, which was supposed to suggest fiery zeal for the faith.  Perhaps the compromise of the customary amethyst, which is now most popularly used, for Episcopal rings, being a combination of the blue and the red, may typify a blending of more human qualities!