Among current favorites is the charm bracelet. This can be most attractive, although only a teenage subdebutante will breeze into a room with a tinkling of several bracelets laden with charms. One such bracelet can have pleasantly and decoratively dangling mementos of special events and occasions. I know a well-traveled young woman who adds a golden token of each new country and important city she visits: among her dangles of wrought gold and stones are a Mexican peon, a Balinese dancer, a gondola, the Eiffel Tower, the volcano Fujiyama, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. There is also a heart, to indicate another region of her travels.
Queen Elizabeth I had so many dangles that she used not a bracelet but a girdle, which held keys, a pair of scissors, and even the fork—a new luxury in her days!—she used at the table. Beside these around the royal waist, there hung “a round clock fullie garnished with dyamondes,” and a prayer book two and a half inches long, bound in gold and set with a cameo.
A pendant birthstone, the three monkeys that see, hear, and speak no evil, and various lucky charms are also fit for dangles. Such items, gathered through fortunate finds, add a personal and distinctive touch, and convert an otherwise common ornament into an interesting jewel.
More About Rings
Never should rings be worn on different fingers of the same hand. In other words, counting the engagement and marriage rings as one, one should wear one ring on one hand at one time. Have many rings, if you wish, but wear them in succession.
If the left hand is bound by the wedding pair, the middle finger of the right hand might be the place for a fine touch of color, in a plain band, or one ringed with small diamonds, with a large central colored stone.
The only ones by general consent allowed to wear many rings on many fingers are the dowagers who can (and do) recall their youth in Queen Victoria’s days.
Gold Jewels
Gold jewelry, without colored stones, may be termed neutral; that is, any such piece will harmonize with other jewels. A plain gold bracelet or watch, for example, may be worn with a gold and pearl ensemble. Similarly, a plain gold piece can be worn with a multicolored jewel—if the gold in the two pieces is of the same shade. Gold jewels, however, should not be worn with other metals, such as diamonds set in platinum. Silver, gold, platinum, or palladium: the same metal should characterize the ensemble.