Little Fountains of Pure Color

My favorite jewelry description of all time is in George Eliot's Middlemarch, when the two sisters are going through their mother's jewels. Celia is dying to wear all of it. Dorothea is fighting against her own ideals -- will she ever let herself be happy, with accessories or with men? Sigh ... I love this book!

"The complete unfitness of the necklace from all points of view for Dorothea, made Celia happier in taking it. She was opening some ring-boxes, which disclosed a fine emerald with diamonds, and just then the sun passing beyond a cloud sent a bright gleam over the table.

"'How very beautiful these gems are!' said Dorothea, under a new current of feeling, as sudden as the gleam. 'It is strange how deeply colors seem to penetrate one, like scent. I suppose that is the reason why gems are used as spiritual emblems in the Revelation of St. John. They look like fragments of heaven. I think that emerald is more beautiful than any of them.'

"'And there is a bracelet to match it,' said Celia. 'We did not notice this at first.'

'"They are lovely,' said Dorothea, slipping the ring and bracelet on her finely turned finger and wrist, and holding them towards the window on a level with her eyes. All the while her thought was trying to justify her delight in the colors by merging them in her mystic religious joy.

"'You would like those, Dorothea,' said Celia, rather falteringly, beginning to think with wonder that her sister showed some weakness, and also that emeralds would suit her own complexion even better than purple amethysts. 'You must keep that ring and bracelet -- if nothing else. But see, these agates are very pretty and quiet.'

"'Yes! I will keep these -- this ring and bracelet,' said Dorothea. Then, letting her hand fall on the table, she said in another tone -- 'Yet what miserable men find such things, and work at them, and sell them!' She paused again, and Celia thought that her sister was going to renounce the ornaments, as in consistency she ought to do.


"'Yes, dear, I will keep these,' said Dorothea decidedly. 'But take all the rest away, and the casket.'

"She took up her pencil without removing the jewels, and still looking at them. She thought of often having them by her, to feed her eye at these little fountains of pure color.

"'Shall you wear them in company?' said Celia, who was watching her with real curiosity as to what she would do.

"Dorothea glanced quickly at her sister ... 'Perhaps,' she said, rather haughtily. 'I cannot tell to what level I may sink.'"

I agree with Celia, and I would take the purple amethysts too. In fact, my engagement ring (designed by Oliver!) has an amethyst. It looks a little like this one (although surely it did not cost as much!).

I still wear it every day, and whenever I look at it, I feel like I'm feeding my eye at a little fountain of pure color.

(Image sources: Conroy + Wilcox 0.6 Ct Rose Cut Emerald Ring from Erie Basin; Tiffany Art Deco Emerald and Diamond Bracelet from Lussori; 1810s Georgian Green Paste Mourning Pin from Erie Basin [Dorothea might prefer this, even though it's not real jewels]; Amethyst Ring from Renaissance Jewelers)