1918 Wedding Rings

Year 1918 proved to be just an ordinary year that started on a day of Tuesday (according to the Gregorian Calendar) or on a day of Monday (according to the Julian Calendar). Important events to be noted in this year was the establishing of a regular airmail service, women over thirty win the right to vote in Britain, education laws become compulsory in the US, Nicholas II is killed. Also the year of 1918 is the year when Yugoslavia was created. However the major event of the 1918 was and still represents the Armistice Day, when Germany surrenders and signs an armistice treaty that ended the First World War known as the Great War. The official time of the armistice was declared to be the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month.

As to the area of social and cultural events we have the wedding of Eugene O'Neil with  Agnes Boulton, the wedding between Charlie Chaplin (aged 29) and the child actress Mildred Harris (aged 16). Back in those days marriage was hold at very young ages, partly as an inheritance of the war that was just about to finish - and it eventually did - and partly because it was a fact that women didn't have anything else better to do than marrying. The wedding dresses at that time were a combination of Edwardian style, or what has left of it and a new tendency towards simplifying the adornments. The specific elements of the dress was the high standing collar, the lace overlay on the bodice, and the train of the under skirt.

The wedding jewelry wasn't too rich in decorative styles; the importance was mostly awarded to the engagement rings which were created in the style called Art Nouveau being in fashion between 1890 and 1918. These emerald rings followed the pattern of a flowing design that made them look utterly feminine with butterflies, twining vines, flowers or dragonflies as decorative motifs. This retro style is still in fashion nowadays because it confers to the jewel itself the perfume of a classic decoration.

Compared to the engagement rings which were more significant in the life of a couple, the 1918 wedding rings were much simpler bearing the straight shape of two gold bands, one thicker than the other. The thicker shape belonged to the men's fingers, whereas the thinner one to women's. Later toward the 20s the wedding rings jewelers began to create the well-known micro pave diamond wedding ring, a technique that used diamonds paved on the surface of a gold or platinum wedding bands. This technique has been preserved till our present times in the art of the wedding rings, being the reason that makes the object of many couples' choice for their upcoming event.