Modern Engagement Ring vs. Victorian Engagement Ring
In the Victorian era, jewelry had a distinct style that became so popular that it remained in trend for centuries. Engagement rings in the Victorian era included halos, rows, and clusters of diamonds. Tulips and serpents were popular motifs, capturing the richness of Victorian styles and elaborate elegance. On the other hand, modern engagement rings are sleek and have minimalistic designs without being too ornate. They feature distinct angles, geometric shapes, clear lines, and unique, minimal details. Each style is hands down beautiful. Let’s delve further into the characteristics of both styles to help you choose your engagement ring according to your preferences.
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IN THIS ARTICLE
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Sunny Eden™ can customize Modern or Victorian engagement rings
A fabulous battle across centuries: Modern vs. Victorian
There has been a century-old battle between the graceful Victorian styles and the sassy modern styles. The truth is that there can be no competition between the two. Each style has its characteristic attractiveness due to the age they represent.
Victorian engagement ring
Victorian engagement rings evoke a romantic era speaking of hearts, roses, lilies, and acrostic messages. Such ornate designs are symbolic of undying love between you and your partner.
The Victorian era, named after the Queen, reflected quintessentially royal styles popularized by Her Majesty. For decades, fashion and jewelry got influenced by the tastes of Queen Victoria. Her fashion statements dictated the style of the day. The wreath of orange blossoms worn on her wedding day got widely copied by brides. Even her mourning jewelry consisted of diamonds worn with black silk and was widely copied.
Serpent motif or snake rings
The serpent motif or snake rings became quite popular in Victorian engagement rings. They represented the eternity of love. The serpent bracelet in Queen Victoria’s jewelry collection may have influenced the origin of this particular style.
Floral rings
The other popular motif in Victorian wedding rings is flowers. Floral rings have a romantic appeal and speak of love and romance. The 19th-century naturalistic movement influenced them. Tulips were popular motifs for proposals and wedding rings, symbolizing passion. Similarly, myrtle stood for love and good luck, roses for love, and violets for romantic thoughts. Such antique tulip motif rings encrusted fully in diamonds or with a ruby as the central petal are popular to date.
Half hoop ring
Another trendy Victorian-style engagement ring is the half hoop ring with open backs and small diamonds encrusted in the shape of a headband-style tiara. A very fashionable choice was a small series of diamonds alternated with rubies or amethysts, encrusted on yellow gold.
Acrostic jewelry
Acrostic jewelry was another statement in Victorian fashion. The first letter of the gemstones used in order helped to spell a word. For example, the word ‘Regard’ could be formed by using ruby, emerald, garnet, amethyst, ruby, and a diamond., Other popular acrostic messages were ‘Adore,’ ‘Dear’ and ‘Dearest.’ Acrostic jewelry sent secret tokens of love to one’s beloved.
2. Modern engagement ring
Modern engagement rings speak of minimalism and have geometric lines and shapes defining them. There are unlimited choices in base metal, gemstone colors, and designs. The round-cut center stone style is quite popular in modern days. The other popular shapes are oval and teardrop as center stones on platinum or white gold.
Round one: center stone
The choice and cut of the center stone have differed across ages according to changing styles and preferences. As cuts have been invented over the ages, they have become a popular part of modern styles. Similarly, lab-grown diamonds and non-diamond stones are reigning modern-day styles.
Other than diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, amethysts, and pearls were quite popular in Victorian jewelry. Since the color blue was in trend in those times, sapphire, turquoise, and blue enamel were widely used. Jewelers also used opal, moonstone, and topaz. Modern-day engagement rings feature Moissanite, Morganite, Tanzanite, and Aquamarine.
It's obvious that while Victorian jewelry preferred bright colors, modern rings come in fancy and subtle colors. By the choice of the gemstones used in Victorian times, we can conclude that the reigning colors were white, blue, green, red, violet, and pink. They provided the regal outlook to those stunning, elaborate, and detailed designs, giving them just the aura they needed to shine out as statement pieces. Modern women, however, generally like to go for classic white and other subtle shades like yellow, light pink, and light blue. Sunny Eden™ offers clear and colorless diamonds, sunny yellow, sky blue, eden green, and rose pink lab-grown diamonds made from hair in engagement rings for modern women.
Solitaires were slowly gaining popularity in Victorian times. Since princess cut and emerald cut had not been invented yet, the popular cuts back then were the Old Mine cut, old European cut, rose cut, step cut, pear-shaped cut and the round brilliant cut. The princess cut, emerald cut, and cushion cut diamonds became popular much later in the 20th century and started ruling modern engagement ring styles. Sunny Eden™ offers 10 popular lab-grown diamond cuts to provide ladies with ample options.
Round two: jewelry setting
When we analyze the preferred jewelry settings and base material of the engagement and wedding rings spanning these two eras, we can see how styles have evolved over the ages.
Antique and vintage rings focused more on ornate designs. Therefore, the popular stone setting styles in Victorian engagement rings are prong, claw prong, collet, bezel, halo and solitaire. As styles have changed, modern style engagement rings now prefer a channel setting or pave setting of small diamonds across the body. The classic prong setting featuring a round-cut center diamond never goes out of fashion. The 3-stone and split shank are also very popular in modern times. Not to forget, women also hugely prefer the infinity twist and the eternity style engagement ring, both symbolizing undying love.
Diamond dealers like Sunny Eden™ can also help you make your dream come true. You may sketch your own design and customize your ideal engagement ring featuring the best of everything you like. Help your fantasy come to life on your D-day.
Victorian engagement rings were generally made of silver, yellow gold, and rose gold. On the contrary, modern styles have shifted from shiny yellow gold to softer and subtler white gold and platinum as popular metal choices for engagement rings.
Winner of the battle
There is no winner between the two. These are two styles capturing the essence of two eras, the designs that reflect the tastes and desires of women across these two periods. Both the styles have their uniqueness and what you choose depends on your personal fashion preferences. Some women love everything vintage and ornate, while others prefer to be chic. Hope to see you find your ideal engagement ring!
Bottom line
As women have changed over centuries and generations, so have their tastes. The same is true for fashion and jewelry as well. Ornate is the word that best suits Victorian jewelry, and modern engagement rings can be best described as chic and minimalist. Victorian engagement rings may showcase something as elaborate as a cluster of diamonds encircling a floral-shaped diamond. On the contrary, a modern engagement ring may feature a classic solitaire or a 3-stone design as a fashion statement. Whatever you choose depends on the mood, occasion, and personal taste. Each woman is unique, and so are their choices.
