Gifts of Grandeur: A REGARD Locket, c. 1830

Locket
Two-color gold, rubies, emeralds, garnets, amethysts, diamonds and turquoise.
The Victoria & Albert Museum

I have a special fondness for Victorian (and earlier) jewelry in general, but I’m always tickled by those British pieces which adhere to the "language of stones.”  This concept allowed a sentimental message to be conveyed using the initial letter of each stone in the design to spell out a word or phrase.

Here, for example, the stones adorning this heart-shaped  locket spell "Regard.”  Ruby, Emerald, Garnet, Amethyst, Ruby, Diamond.  The stones are set in two-color gold around a “forget-me-not” of five turquoises centered by a ruby.

Such a piece of jewelry would have been a brilliant way to declare affection for family and friends, passion for a lover.  Some pieces even showed loyalty to a monarch or a cause, and also religious devotion and grief.