Metal: 18K Gold

Stones: Rubies and Diamonds

Face Size: 15mm x 5mm

Size: 7.75

What You Should Know: Hallmarked for Birmingham 1895

*This Ring Can Be Resized

If you had to choose one color to represent intensity, love, and passion, the obvious answer is red. It’s desirous, eternal, and bold. So what better stone to represent these virtues than ruby? It’s extraordinary color and powerful energy- there’s nothing quite like it.

There is a Bengalese legend about where rubies come from. It begins with a young man who traveled far across a foreign sea to find a new home. While on his journey, he saw glowing red balls swirling in the water. He fetched one, and went on his merry way. He eventually landed in a exotic city and started a life of his own. A life that apparently involved playing marbles in the street with his bright red “ball”. A princess witnessed a game from her window, and saw that the red stone would break the other player’s marbles, and was the most beautiful shade of red she had ever seen. She demanded to have it to her father, the king. The king arranged to have the young man brought to the castle where he offered him 1,000 rupees for it. Not knowing its true value, he struck a deal. The princess placed the ruby in her hair, and asked her pet parrot how she looked (were parrots the original mirrors?). The parrot scoffed, saying she needed way more than one ruby to make herself beautiful. The princess dramatically locked herself in the “grief chamber” in response. The king demanded that the lad go back to where he found the first stone and collect more.

He set out on his expedition, and somehow found the same whirlpool. He dove down into the center and was astonished to find that there was a huge palace on the ocean floor. Inside the palace was the god Shiva meditating with a floating woman above him. The woman was the most beautiful thing the young man had ever seen, but unfortunately her head was disconnected from her body. As her blood poured out, it turned into the rubies that were floating up to the surface. He woke the woman and they immediately fell in love and escaped back to the boat together, along with thousands of the world’s best rubies. He sailed back to his new home, and the king rewarded him immensely. Because of his bravery, the young man not only got a more lavish lifestyle, but also his soul mate. Since then, rubies have been associated with power, energy, courage, and prosperity.