Valentine's Day

St. Valentine, Patron Saint of love and lovers, is celebrated on 14th February but who was St. Valentine and how did the custom of Valentine's Day begin?

Well, Valentine appears to have been a Roman priest living during the reign of the Roman Emperor, Claudius II. Needing troops to enlist in his armies, Claudius II declared marriage illegal for young men in the expectation they would enlist. Valentine, defying Claudius II's edict, persisted in conducting illegal marriage ceremonies and was eventually was imprisoned for his crime. Although during his imprisonment Valentine initially found favour with Claudius II, his attempts to convert Claudius to Christianity sealed his fate and Claudius sentenced Valentine to death in the late 200's - although it took another couple of hundred years for Valentine to have a recognised Day.

During his imprisonment, legend has it that Valentine restored the sight of the jailer's daughter. The couple fell in love and, on the eve of his death, wrote in farewell to his love, signing it, "From your Valentine" and this letter is generally considered to have been the first Valentine's "Card".

In Englamd, Valentine's Day has been celebrated since around about the 1600's. By the mid-1700's sending love-letters and exchanging tokens of affection was quite popular but with the advances in printing and an efficient postal system, the custom of sending "Valentine's Cards" really took off to become the celebration of romance and love we know today.

Of course, apart from the red rose and chocolates, jewellery has always been a popular Valentine's Day gift and the Victorians, with their highly developed sense of the sentimental, produced some of the most beautiful love tokens.










Today the heart motif obviously still features strongly in sentimental jewellery. Many modern designs, including Hot Diamonds, feature hearts in their collections. Hot Diamonds silver jewellery is set with diamonds and often has a gold plated detail. The presentation boxes are of a quality normally associated with the luxury market and give an extra special touch to a Valentine's gift of Hot Diamonds jewellery.








Love Hearts jewellery, designed on the famous sweets, has a fun theme. Silver heart-shaped pendants and charms have coloured enamel decoration and are inscribed with mini "love letters". The Love Hearts have messages that start with the "good friends" stage right through to the wedding and, with a Love Heart inscribed "Girl" or "Boy" even a christening is catered for.

Are You Wearing Your Jewellery?

I heard somewhere the other day that there has been an incease in the number of websites selling second hand wedding dresses and I thought "what a good idea". After all, what bride wears the same dress to her next wedding (!) and I briefly thought about selling second hand wedding dresses myself; well, we do sell second hand diamond rings as engagement rings. The rationale was: buy the engagement ring, buy the wedding dress. It would be one less thing to think about after all when planning a busy wedding. It was only the thought of running a second website and all the blogging and social networking that goes with it that brought me out in a cold sweat and stopped me dead in my tracks.



This recycling of wedding dresses did set me thinking about recycling jewellery though. We all have jewellery that doesn't see the light of day; things we've fallen out of love with or that's out of style (all that yellow gold for a start!). And that's the question: Are you wearing your jewellery? or is it stuck in a drawer somewhere? Maybe it's still on your insurance policy? Shame on you: you are paying out money to keep jewellery in a drawer that you no longer want or wear. Why! Did you know that jewellers who specialize in second hand and antique jewellery and diamonds might be interested in buying from you? Jewellers, like ourselves, who have jewellery workshops are not even bothered about the condition - it doesn't matter we can use your odd earrings and broken chains to carry out repairs or make other items (recycling see?).



If we think we can resell your jewellery we will offer a better price. Of course, you don't have to take the money. You can part-exchange your jewellery for something that appeals to you more (again, recycling).

So, dig it out, bring it in and get yourself something new to wear.