Ruffs - MorningCalM January 2019

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BOUND IN GOLD

Signet rings are engraved with designs unique to their owners and were once used by kings to sign royal decrees. Today, English jeweler Ruffs creates bespoke signet rings on which you can etch a part of your identity.

A ring is a promise. Consider the wedding and the engagement ring. In the mid-20th-century United States, the rise of diamond engagement rings curiously coincided with the disappearance of breach-of-promise laws that allowed women to sue men who broke off engagements. When the courts stopped getting involved, diamond rings promised some economic consolation against damaged reputations and marriage prospects.

Kings and nobles used rings as an assurance of good faith too. Signet rings, usually made of gold and engraved with a design unique to the wearer, were used to stamp wax seals over important documents, promising that
they had been personally authorized by the right person. Though these days signet rings are passed down as family heirlooms, it was once common to destroy a signet ring upon someone’s death. Practically, it discouraged forgery, but symbolically, it was a gesture of how bound the ring was to its owner, not to be replicated or reappropriated.

Given such weight, signet rings were made with quality and precision in mind. And though the rings’ legal power has largely faded, English jeweler Ruffs still upholds this commitment to excellence. Currently headed by Mark Ruff, the third son to inherit a brand founded by Mark Henry Ruff, the company is based near the family home in Hampshire, UK. It takes at least a month to handcraft each commission, and Ruffs works with experienced specialists for each step involved in making a signet ring, whether it’s model making, goldsmithing or engraving.

A signet ring is cast with a small flat surface called a bezel where the engraving is made, in both raised and depressed forms. The engraving can also be made on stones like ruby, carnelian or lapis lazuli that are set into the bezel. Every detail of a Ruffs ring can be customized. After the ring style is chosen and finger measurements are taken, a wax model is carefully carved. From this carving, a mold is created and filled with platinum or gold. Ruffs’ gold rings can be up to 22 karats and wrought in traditional yellow, white or rose. All of its rings are hallmarked and then etched with the Ruffs maker’s mark: “CNAR,” standing for Cyril Norman Aubrey Ruff, Mark’s grandfather.

Without an engraving, a signet ring is like a face without eyes, nose or mouth. Signet rings traditionally bear elements from a family’s coat of arms, usually the topmost part, called the crest. The Ruff crest is the ruff bird; the design shows off the thick plumage males display around their necks, similar to the collars — ruffs — Europeans wore centuries ago. Every Ruff family member has a signet ring depicting this bird. If you don’t have a family coat of arms, Ruffs can help you devise one and even connect you with a master from the official College of Arms, which was first established as the authority on heraldry in 1484.

Of course, it’s possible to not use a crest at all. The tradition of a family coat of arms comes from an age when your place in the world was mostly inherited through your bloodline. Times have changed. “People should never be put off owning a signet ring just because they don’t have a crest,” says Ali Ruff, one of Mark’s daughters and the successor to the Ruffs brand. Many of the rings Ruffs creates these days are engraved not with handed-down family designs, but a monogram, an inspiring motto or a stand-alone symbol: a feather, an elephant, the Buddha — even a flying pig.

Ali is proof of these times. Since 1904, when the first Ruffs shop opened its doors, four generations of Ruff men have helmed the business. Ali will be the first daughter to take ownership. If she were to design another signet ring for herself, she would choose something more contemporary. “Perhaps a Picasso- style face or stylized female figure,” she says. This passing of the torch is not just the right step for Ali, who is passionate about the craft. “It also allowed my father, Mark, to pursue his dream of studying film. He’s now researching for his PhD.”

A ring, whether engraved or not, is a potent talisman in our consciousness. According to Herodotus, when Polycrates, an ancient ruler of the Greek island of Samos, threw his prized signet ring into the sea to placate the envious gods, it stubbornly found its way back to him. In The Recognition of Shakuntala, an ancient play written by the Indian poet Kalidasa, a ring has the power to dispel amnesia and prove that Shakuntala is the king’s beloved queen.

After a signet ring is polished to a gleam, Ruffs presses a wax impression with it and gifts it to the client. The tech we use to identify people today has advanced light-years beyond signet rings, but fingerprints and facial features do a poor job of reflecting our real character. Ruffs helps you aspire to the modern idea of identity: deciding for yourself who you are, beyond conventions or a circumstance of birth. If a ring is still a promise, in the 21st century, a signet ring is a promise you make to yourself.