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How many carats was your mother''s/grandmother''s (etc.) ring?

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What a cool topic! I enjoyed reading all the responses.

My mom, when she was married to my dad... she must have married in around 1969 I think. She wore a mini mini MINI blue velvet dress she'd sewed herself for her wedding; I still have it, and wore it to a dance in highschool years ago... but anyway, she and my dad had their wedding bands custom made, and she HATED it. Never wore it. It was this ghastly diseased looking lumpy/dimpled yellow gold band, hugely chunky and very odd looking. My dad never wore his either. So she never wore any rings at all, no diamond. When she remarried
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(yay! I'm so glad she's happy now, she deserves it) in the late '90s, her new husband gave her a beautiful dainty purpley blue sapphire in a yellow gold Celtic knot band, very her. (She wears it gardening ALL THE TIME and has chipped it though, I'm trying to break her of the habit!)

My grandma on my dad's side, the only living one, has a round brilliant that looks around a carat in a yellow gold tiffany style setting. I'm thinking it's from her current husband, whom she married in the mid '80s, not my grandfather.

My mom's mom, I have no idea, and it is actually a sad story- all her things, jewelry and all, were taken by her husband's new wife after he died too. (Grandma died young, before I was born, of a heart attack very suddenly. Her husband, my grandfather, quickly remarried Satan*, then HE died suddenly. Satan looted the family's stuff- gave absolutely everything that belonged to my family to *her* children- and then comitted suicide. Awesome. So I've never seen a picture of my mom as a child, family pictures were part of the looted stuff. So, my grandmother's ering went to Satan's children, and it is still painful for my mom to discuss, I don't think I'd ever ask her. So I have no idea what it was.

*Satan was the name my mom and her sisters gave the new wife. I met her when I was 2 and trust me, I STILL remember it- she WAS Satan! I was so terrified of her I clearly remember it.

So there's a mini novel for you!
 
i don''t know if my grandmothers had diamond rings, but i doubt it. my paternal grandmother was quite wealthy, but i''ve only seen her wear jade (we''re from korea). my maternal grandmother was middle-class, so i don''t think she had any diamonds.

my mother''s ring is roughly .25-.30ct. she picked the setting because it made the stone look larger. last year my father gave her a 1ct, which she promptly gave to me. she rarely wears this ring. sometimes she wears a yg band, but usually she goes without. my dad hasn''t worn his band since he outgrew it 15 years ago.

my e-ring is .50ct. my family isn''t very diamond-conscious. my parents gave me a strand of mikimoto pearls with a diamond pave ''pearl'' for my wedding instead of diamond studs or a bracelet because they value pearls more highly.

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I inherited my mothers 1959 set with a half carat center diamond.She had several requests by my father to upgrade her diamond but she refused because she loved her original ring.The 1930s depression kept my grandmothers ring small having only a 10th of a carat and she felt lucky having it with eight children to raise and a farm to help run.During the war years of the 1940s ,the war kept diamonds and precious metals out of the reach of most people because of the mines being closed and metals being restricted.
 
I''m not too sure the size of my mom''s e-ring, but it looks like about 0.15-0.20 (married in the 70''s), her mother''s e-ring as I can remember from the appraiser is a 0.12 VVS1 with some side stones, can''t remember the color but it was at least H (married in the late 30''s). Mine is a 1.04 SI2/G.

I''m trying to convince my mom to buy herself a nice big one for her right hand, 1.75-2.00ct, since she is divorced & has never done anything nice for herself (or had anyone buy her any decent jewelry). I think I have her almost convinced...
 
Both my grandmothers were married somewhere between 1917 and 1925 - both of them had .33 (estimated) RBs in yellow gold settings. My mom was married in 1945 and had a very small RB - probably around .10. That stone fell out, and my dad then bought her a .5 RB with 2 .05ish side stones - I don''t know the color but it sparkles like crazy. It has to be at least an I1 - there is a black inclusion almost in the middle of the table (about twice the size of the period at the end of this sentence. He got a "great deal" on it apparently.

Both of my grandmothers have passed away, and their rings were just sitting in a box, driving my mom crazy. She wanted to wear them but the metal was worn so thin she was afraid that they would break or the stones would fall out. For their 55th anniversary, I had her .5, 2 .05s and my grandmothers'' diamonds reset into one yG ring at a remount show. She LOVES it and gets lots of compliments on it
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My Grandmother''s ring was an old mine cut round, about .75 pts. set in white gold with emerald baguettes surrounding the center stone on all four sides. My Grandparents got engaged in 1925.

My Mom''s ring is between 1.25 and 1.30, round, set in a platinum Tiffany knife edge setting with fishtail prongs and three sizable single cut stones on each side. I have that ring. My parents for engaged in 1953.

My Mom never got a diamond wedding band. She always prized her super wide plain gold band.

My Grandmother however, treated herself to her dream wedding band when she was around 50 years old. It''s an 18K white gold baguette eternity ring, between 2 1/2 and 3 carats tw. because her ring finger was a whopping size 10. It''s even too big for my thumb...... I''ll have to figure out what to do with all those baguettes some day.
 
Grandma had a plain gold wedding band. My mother''s e-ring (circa 1950) is 1/3 ct diamond solitaire set in a platinum illusion head setting. Both the band and the plain wedding band are yellow gold.
 
I wish I knew anything about my grandmothers'' erings or wedding bands, but I don''t, and they''ve all passed away.
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That said, my mom was engaged with a 1 carat RB solitaire set in a 4-prong thin yellow gold setting. She and my dad got married in 1970 with matching plain yellow gold wedding bands. Nowadays, her e-ring is in a safety deposit box and will be given to me sometime later, at which point, I will have it appraised and likely reset into a three-stone ring with maybe a couple of sapphires on the sides? Or maybe pears... Anyway, I digress. She currently wears my dad''s original wedding band (it fits her finger and not his anymore and I have her original w-band), a large jade ring, and her 7-stone RB diamond anniversary ring, all set in yellow gold.
 
Both grandma and mom have about .35 ct solitaires set in white gold. Grandma''s was lost - makes me very sad. Mom never upgraded (the little gal sits in her box), but adopted many new big girls in the future!!!
 
My mom''s eng. ring had a .38 stone in it (which is mine now) and she seemed happy with it since she wasn''t entirely into jewelry. My dad was obsessed with gem stones and designs (that is where my passion began) and my mom regularily wore two or three pieces, but didn''t seem very respectful of them and tossed jewerly around the house and lost a few items, like a diamond stud. I use to hunt for it hoping to find it and KEEP it, but it wasn''t found! lol She gave me the other one, but in my spoiled time since then, I ended up buying my own larger studs and hers now sits in my jewelry box.

My grandmother has a 1 ct ring on her tiny finger and it looks massive. I guess my grandfather saved for it for years and it''s a D flawless (so says my mom).
 
Amazing thread!!!

Both Nonna''s (GM''s) had only gold bands.

Mom was proposed to with a 0.38 RB, and slowly upgraded to a 3 stone, and then finally in 1999 - she made it into a 5 stone.

I''ve been trying to get pics of my moms ring, as it''s the nicest 5 stone I''ve ever seen (next to Kcoursolle''s!!) I''ll keep trying
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None of moms stones are graded, and they are all so sparkly considering we have no idea what their specs are. She got lucky over the years I suppose!

***pics to come***
 
I seriously doubt that either of my grandmothers ever had engagement rings. I think at the most they would have had small plain gold bands.

My mother had a very tiny marquis on her engagement set with my Dad. She doesn''t really like to wear rings (gasp!) so with my step-dad she didn''t bother to get an ering and just wore a yellow gold and platinum wedding band. But she doesn''t even bother to wear that anymore.
 
Date: 1/16/2008 12:19:19 PM
Author: mela lu
Amazing thread!!!

Both Nonna''s (GM''s) had only gold bands.
Click to expand...
Love it!
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I have Nonna''s too.

Sorry, back on topic..I have my mom''s ering and diamond (diamond fell out) and it''s about .68 carats. It''s at Whiteflash as we speak being made into a pendant.
 
I am the proud owner of my mother's 3/4 carat pear solitaire (in a different setting than her original, I had it reset 10 years ago) AND my grandmother's (father's mother) 3/4 carat OEC, in it's original antique setting and surrounded by smaller diamonds. I have no idea what my maternal grandmother wore, nor where it ended up - but not with my mother, that I do know.
 
What a great thread!

LittleGreyKitten, I''m so sorry to hear about your story!! I know someone with a similar story, and its just awful that someone could take such personal things...like photos and such.

My grandmother''s ring has a funny story. She grew up during the depression and didn''t have alot of money. My grandfather was college educated, and came from a good family. When he proposed, she was appalled at the diamond he presented her with, and said it wasn''t big enough! My grammy was someone who never cared about material things, so its just so funny that she said that. Not sure what the original was, but what she wound up with was a 1.5 ct RB that is gorgeous, set in platinum with some side stones. They were married in 1954. My mom has it now, reset in a more modern setting, and I wear her wedding band, which is a half-eternity band with small diamonds, not even sure the TCW, but the stones are very sparkly.
 
My grandma from dad''s side had one 3 carat and one 4 carats.. Grandpa bought it for her during the 50s.. Grandma from my mum''s side had 1 carat plus, but faces up 1.1 carat because it is shallow.. My mum has a .70 carat and a 1.5 carat.
 
Great thread!

My mum''s engagement ring from my dad was a tiny, very dark blue (almost black!) sapphire (maybe about .15ct) in a flower-shaped platinum mount, with something like 6 microscopic diamond chips around it - one in each of the ''petals''. A prong broke on the sapphire a few years back and she''s still not had it fixed.

My dad did buy her a loose diamond many, many, many years ago, during a trip to Antwerp. He went to a diamond cutting place (how jealous am I?) and they advised him to buy the very best quality he could afford... so she has a beautiful little 0.10ct (ish) D colour, flawless diamond in a ziplock plastic bag somewhere. :)

Last week, after seeing her wearing some awful ring in place of her broken engagement ring, I gave her my old e-ring to wear, from my previous engagement, which is a (B&M quality) 0.25ct solitaire in a bypass-style 18kt setting. She''s thrilled to bits to be wearng it because it''s enormous compared to anything she''s ever owned. I don''t think I''ll be asking for it back. :)

My Nana''s e-ring has three illusion-set tiny weeny diamonds in it. To be honest, it''s much more illusion-setting than diamond, bless her.

It''s funny, I''ve noticed a big difference being on PS between e-rings in the UK and in the USA - the average size stone is wayyyyy bigger in the USA! When I got my 0.25ct diamond when I got engaged at 19 (14 years ago! eek!) it was considered really quite sizeable - and not just by my own age group. Even now, a 0.25ct diamond is thought of as a good size diamond over here. It seems a 1ct stone is almost seen as a minimum size in the USA from what I can tell. (Although I could be wrong!).

Of course, that does have the huge advantage that my 1.00ct stone is seen as quite a whopper. That''s nice, but it doesn''t stop me plotting my 2ct upgrade for 5 years time! LOL!

It''s been lovely seeing all the other replies and pics - thankyou for sharing!

x x x
 
My mom''s diamond is a small half (.4 something) - attached is a pic. My dad was engaged prior to my mom, and so he had the .25 engagement ring from his first FI, traded it in, and nearly doubled the size of the stone. My mom says that when they were married in 1974, that was pretty big diamond in her social circle.

Both of my grandmothers wear wg antique settings with lots of filigree. If I had to guess, both have about a 1/3 in the center, no bigger than a half. My maternal grandmother''s is an upgrade - apparently, her first ring had lots of filigree with a diamond chip in the center. My paternal grandparents were engaged right before my gpa left for WWII in 1943, and my maternal grandparents were married 6 days after my grandfather''s return as a POW in 45.

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My mom had an engagement couch, not a ring.
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My grandmother had a small diamond solitaire set in yellow gold, it''s about 0.3 carats, I think. My mom inherited it when she died this past summer, but my mom thought she should be buried with it instead, and her brothers and sisters agreed.

My great-grandmother had a slightly larger diamond ring with 6 small sidestones, I think it''s about 0.5 carats. I currently am the keeper of this ring, and I wear it everyday on my right hand. Always makes me think of my grandma, because she wore it on her right hand almost her entire life (her mom, my great-gma, died when my grandmother was very young).

Taken on a 2megapixel camera with no macro and no sunlight, but you get the idea:

gwensggmaring234098.JPG
 
Love this thread! So interesting to hear about everyone''s diamond backgrounds
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Grandmothers... hmm, well my dad''s mom passed away when he was very young, so I have no idea! But they were not wealthy and I do not know of any ring, so I assume she did not have one.

My grandma from my mom''s side came from a wealthy family and then proceeded to marry a guy (my grandfather, have never met him!) who was a huge lazy jerk. He was abusive to everyone and seemed to refuse to work. My mom grew up seriously in poverty, no food. Her younger sister nearly died from malnutrition and I am not talking depression era either. But anyway, they divorced before I was born and I''ve never seen her wear any rings. And I am sure that *!#&@#^& was too cheap to buy her one anyway.

My mom did not have a engagement ring until I was around 10 years old or so? She started w/ just a plain yellow gold band. When I was 10 or so she got a .5 pretty RB yellow gold solitaire that she still wears now. I remember thinking that it was sooo expensive
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hehe. When I finally finish my medical training, I fully intend to buy my mom a big blue sapphire ring. Her birthstone, and she loves them!

Most of the bling in my family comes from my hubby''s Gram! Her husband definitely spoiled her! I am now the owner of her custom Tiffany pendant. But my sister-in-law owns the most important piece. Her husband surprised her at some point with a custom Tiffany ring w/ a huuge blood red ruby. I''ve only seen it in pictures but would guess that it is in the 4-5 ct range, and surrounded by a diamond halo. I don''t think I will get to see it in person for a while, since my SIL does not wear it because it is not insured! And she lives in far from us in Atlanta. Eeeek I can''t even imagine what it would cost to insure a ring of that magnitude. Someday! My secret fantasy is to be able to take the ring to visit Richard Sherwood in Florida for an appraisal etc. That would be so fun!
 
My grandma had a very small (.08-.15ct) round diamond, which she lost somewhere along the line.

My mom's center stone is about .75ct, and a marquise.
 
My mom has a .5-ish RB solitaire with a double WB wrap that has 4 itty-bitties. Not bad for a 20 year old in 1980! I loved that ring as a kid, and still love the 2 WB idea!
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I don't know what my mom's mom wore, her and my grandpa divorced when I was young and didn't care about rings, but I think she's started wearing it again since he's passed. I think my dad's mom wears just a gold band. Their 50th anni is in April, and I can't wait to visit!
 
My mom has a .7ish carat RB set in a really unique w-gold setting, I''ve been meaning to take pictures for PS. They were engaged in 1976.

My maternal grandmother never had an engagement ring, she only has a yellow gold band. She was married in the late 1940s in Berlin. I think the war may have had something to do with the lack of an engagement ring.

I have no idea what my paternal grandmother has, I''ll ask my father next time I talk to him.


LOVE this thread, so interesting!
 
My mother got married with a plain gold band. Later on, my grandmother gave my dad an earring (other was lost) with a ~.4ct rose cut diamond and he added a band to it to make it into an ering. It's a lovely piece and probably qualifies as an antique - I think the earrings were early 1900s. Neither one of my grandmothers had an ering, just plain gold bands.
 
My mom got engaged in 1950 with a 3/4 carat D IF mine cut stone. They got it in the diamond district in NYC. My sister had the diamond reset and wears it as a RHR.
 
My parents were engaged in the mid-70''s, and my mom still wears her original .5 ct white gold solitare and wedding band. For their 25th anniversary, she added an anniversary band that she stacks with her wedding set.

My mom''s mom always had diamonds that were so small you had to strain your eyes to see them. But alas, it isn''t the diamonds that make the marriage - my grandparents were the happiest couple I''ve ever known! They''ve always been my relationship role models.
 
My grandmother had this beautiful wedding band with engraving of little flowers and vines. I REALLY wanted it.
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When I asked about it when I was in HS, my cousin a few years older had gotten ALL of grandma''s jewelry (they were living together at the time). I got nothing.
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There''s only two of us girl cousins. I got all the leftovers my cousin didn''t want. I did get lucky and get my grandfather''s onyx cufflinks.
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My Mom married in 1961 - at the age of 20. My parents were high school sweeties and Daddy was also 20. Her original engagement ring was a .50 carat rb set in white gold - very simple and plain - which she wore with a plain white gold band.

I recall the Christmas when I was 6 and my folks had just passed their 10th anniversary..and Mom opened a gift from Dad. I couldn''t see what was in the box - but my Mom started absolutely squealing. It was her 10-year upgrade ( a 1.35 carat rb in yellow gold). I was happy Mom was happy but I obviously didn''t get why she was so thrilled. I was way too wrapped up in my brand new Baby Tender Love Santa had just brought. (You younger PSers won''t get that -- but my fellow 40-something PSers will. She was the one of the had-to-have-her babydolls of my childhood...)

Even today a 1.35 carat diamond is a very nice size stone, but in 1971, Mom''s rock was quite the attention-getter as I recall. She, of course, bought a new yellow gold plain w-band to go with it...and wore that forever...until, unfortunately, my parents divorced in 1995, when I was 30.

I don''t recall either of my grandmothers wearing any sort of e-ring - just plain gold wedding bands. One of them however really liked new baubles - so every Christmas my Grandaddy gave her a new ring or watch or bracelet...but nothing too show-stopping. Most every piece was a collection of very, very tiny stones. She had probably 10 diamond cluster rings in all different shapes -- all of them made up of positively microscopic stones. But she loved them & I am sure they made her feel glamorous. I ended up with one of them (she had lots of granddaughters , so we each received one when she passed away) and I occasionally wear it on my right hand. I''m not crazy about it, but wear it to remind me of her sometimes. (Not that I need reminding - she was a wonderful grandmother...)

I do think it is interesting how cultural/social expectations change. My Mom tells me she knew no one back when she married with a larger e-riing than she had back then.
 
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