The Grandfather's Habit
A Victorian signet ring for a 21st birthday
The ask
My godson turns twenty-one in May. His grandfather wore a signet ring every day of his life, and it was lost years ago. I would love him to have one, old rather than new, with his initials cut into it. Around $2,000.
The gift
A Victorian gold signet ring, hallmarked in England in the late nineteenth century, set with a bloodstone whose face was left uncarved. A hand seal engraver cuts his initials into the stone in reverse, deep enough to press into wax, and the ring is sized to his finger. A short written history of the hallmark travels with it in the linen box, the card sealed in wax.
Why it's extraordinary
It replaces the ring his grandfather wore with one of the same age, and it carries his own initials, cut by hand to seal a letter the old way.
The moment
It goes on the little finger the day it arrives, and the first wax impression is kept.
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