Victorian Acrostic Rings

Find out about Victorian Acrostic Rings here!

Codes, puzzles, secret messages, personalized jewellery... We've become obsessed with the idea of wearing and sending personalized messages, inside jokes and 'text speak'. What you may not know is that this idea of hidden messages in jewellery actually has a history dating back to the end of the Georgian and beginning of the Victorian period.  Jewellers used the first letter of gemstones to create words, commemorate important dates and share inside jokes between the giver and receiver of these rings.  These were called Victorian Acrostics. 

The unique combination of gemstones became so popular during the Victorian era that people began to recognize and attempt to read one another's ring messages.  The most popular rings spelled out 'adore', 'regard' and 'dearest'. The first ring in this style was created by Jean Baptiste Mellerio for Marie Antoinette whose ring spelt out j'adore. Another notable figure, Napolean Bonaparte, decked both himself and his wives in rings that used this system to commemorate import dates and events in his life. Versions of this code were created with stones on different rings for stacking, on bracelets so that longer words could be written and on brooches.

Come in to Cynthia Findlay's to see our collection of Victorian Dearest and Regard rings, or to see us about having your own message made into jewellery for someone special.  Don't you just Lapus - Opal - Variscite - Emerald that idea?