Her time on the throne was truly remarkable and was among the most progressive years of the human history, the use of candles gave way to electric light bulbs, and transportation by horse carriage gave way to automobiles. Some movies even portrayed the Victorian era, like the movie Great expectations, which was adapted from the book great expectations by Charles Dickens, the mini-series North and South, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby other more recent TV series Cranford and the mini-series Tess of the D’Urbervilles, and other movies.
The Victorian era was divided into 3 the romantic age, from the time of her wedding to her beloved husband Prince Albert till his death in 1861, her jewelry during this period expressed her buoyancy, composure and romance, her husband to be presented her an engagement ring of a snake with an emerald head. And that was the very first Victorian engagement ring ever crafted, the snake represented their undying love, while the emerald stone was queen victoria’s birthstone, as was often used at that time.
During her wedding, adorned with sapphire and diamond brooch to match her lovely wedding dress that was decorated with handmade lace, including the gift she gave her husband and the royal bridesmaids which was a gold brooch that had a beautiful golden dove resting on a large pearl, the bird was encrusted with diamonds and had a Ruby red eye. Since the people of England loved their queen, the style of jewelry at that time was influenced by the taste of the queen.
When Albert died in 1861, the queen mourned her husband for a grand period of 20 years, thus the 2nd face of the Victorian era. Her jewelry became darker and more in the blues. She began using black jewelry made of jet black onyx, enamel and fossilized coal. And so did her people, in honor of her dead husband, with several monuments built for him. Because there were no antibiotics at the time, the mortality rate was high, so people where generally in mourning. After 20years she finally came out of mourning her husband and her choice of jewelry expressed her buoyancy once again, and in the year 1887, she celebrated her 50 year reign.
A remarkable thing about the Victorian jewelry was the fact that the jewelers took the initiative of crafting very remarkable pieces, which came in the form of flowers, leaves, birds and animals. And because of the discovery of diamonds in 1867, their golden jewelry pieces where always encrusted in beautiful gem stones that were used to create beautiful pieces of vintage engagement rings. Some even as pretty as the first Victorian engagement ring.
Here’s a few Victorian Style Engagement Rings I found on Amazon.com
