I usually feature a piece of Georgian jewelry in my full-length Austenesque novels. I love the sentimentality and bold gems popular in the time period and it’s a great way to show characters’ personalties, thoughtfulness, and their affection for their significant others. In Rising Courage, there is a ring featured, but it’s used as a prop—and it wasn’t even popular in this time.
What is a toi et moi ring?
Toi et moi is French for “you and me” and is a ring setting that symbolizes the partnership of two people becoming one. There are typically two gemstones nestled side by side where it meets around the finger. They can be the same stone and shape or entirely different. An antique toi et moi ring will usually have two stones of a similar size and cut mounted together, while newer styles are more likely to juxtapose size, materials, and gems.
John F Kennedy presented Jaqueline Bouvier with an emerald and diamond toi et moi engagement ring in 1953 and Ariana Grande sports one today. However, it was in the late Victorian and Belle Epoque (1880s-1914) when they were most popular and often used as engagement rings.
So how does this fit with regency-set fiction?
The style first gained attention with a diamond and sapphire ring Napoleon Bonaparte gifted his wife Josephine de Beauharnais in 1796. Napoleon presented his bride-to-be with an engagement ring featuring two pear-shaped stones, a blue sapphire and a white diamond set in gold. Napoleon's family opposed the union as Josephine was a widow with two children from her previous marriage and six years older than Napoleon, but they were enamored with each other.
Sounds romantic, right? Too bad he divorced her in 1810 for failing to produce an heir. Still, her ring was auctioned in 2013, selling for $949,000, thanks to its outstanding provenance.
Josephine gave the ring to her daughter, Hortense, who was Queen of Holland through her marriage to Napoleon’s brother, Louis Bonaparte. Hortense’s son, Napoleon III of France, inherited it from his mother. The ring then passed to Victor, Prince Napoleon (the grandson of Napoleon’s brother, Jerome Bonaparte). The ring was auctioned with possessions belonging to Victor and his wife, Princess Clementine of Belgium.
How did I shoe-horn this style ring into a book set in 1812? Well, Lady Anne Darcy heard about Napoleon's engagement ring and had a similar one made, hoping someday her son would present it as an engagement gift to her niece. The ring in the book is also a pear-shaped diamond next to a pear-shaped sapphire. Lady Catherine has been holding on to it and in Rising Courage has given it to Darcy with the expectation he’ll give it to his cousin Anne.
Darcy has no intention of doing this.
But don’t worry, he’s not going to fob off this ring intended for someone else onto Elizabeth. But she is going to wear it at some point. Read how and why it becomes a prop. Rising Courage is out now.
I found one of these rings with some antique jewelry in my late MIL's jewelry box--she had inherited them from another relative. Though, I'm pretty sure it is either Victorian or Art Nouveau, based on the other period jewelry with it.
I would love to see in your stories when you mention specific jewelry even a pencil type sketch of that piece even if it is put as a footnote as it would help me to visualize it as I read. I love the history that you out with your stories.