Jewelry Descriptions by Nancy L. Eady

As promised last month, I am giving you excerpts from a few of my favorite books involving jewelry descriptions and characterizations. 

The first two quotes are from the Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery, one of my favorites since I was a child. 

From the first book of the series, Anne of Green Gables:

Marilla wore her amethyst brooch to church that day as usual. Marilla always wore her amethyst brooch to church. She would have thought it rather sacrilegious to leave it off – as bad as forgetting her Bible or her collection dime. That amethyst brooch was Marilla’s most treasured possession. A seafaring uncle had given it to her mother who in turn had bequeathed it to Marilla. It was an old-fashioned oval, containing a braid of her mother’s hair, surrounded by a border of very fine amethysts. Marilla knew too little about precious stones to realize how fine the amethysts actually were; but she thought them very beautiful and was always pleasantly conscious of their violet shimmer at her throat, above her good brown satin dress, even although she could not see it.

 

From Anne of Windy Poplars:

Anne’s engagement ring was a circlet of pearls. She had refused to wear a diamond.

 

“I’ve never really liked diamonds since I found out they weren’t the lovely purple I had dreamed. They will always suggest my old disappointment.”

 

“But pearls are for tears, the old legend says,” Gilbert had objected.

 

“I’m not afraid of that. And tears can be happy as well as sad. My very happiest moments have been when I had tears in my eyes – when Marilla told me I might stay at Green Gables – when Matthew gave me the first pretty dress I ever had – when I heard that you were going to recover from the fever. So give me pearls for our troth ring, Gilbert, and I’ll willingly accept the sorrow of life with its joy.” 

Another favorite book of mine, And Ladies of the Club, by Helen Hooven Santmyer, contains the following description: 

[Johnny] tightened his arm around [Julia], turned until he could lay his cheek against hers for a moment, then kissed her gently and sat back.

 

“I brought you something. Aren’t you interested?” He reached into his pocket for a jeweler’s box. If she was disappointed to see on it the name of a local jeweler, she let no sign appear.

 

“Oh, my ring! I didn’t think you would have it so soon.”

 

“It’s Mr. Weller’s prettiest, I thought. Would you rather I’d let you choose your own? We can change it. It isn’t much of a diamond, as diamonds go, but you know – “

 

“Dear Johnny! Of course I know. And I know it was chosen with love.” She held her left hand across to him and he slipped the ring on her finger.

 

From The Ghost from the Sea by Anna Holmes (part of the Haunting Danielle series.)

 

Manicured nails sporting blood red polish absently tapped the tabletop. It wasn’t the tapping sound that caught Danielle’s attention, it was the sparkling flicker bouncing off Jolene’s many diamond rings. The woman had a ring on every finger – even her thumbs, and Danielle was fairly certain it wasn’t costume jewelry. Looking up from the fidgety fingers, Danielle noted Jolene’s designer silk blouse and diamond earrings.

 

So there you have it. Four examples of using jewelry to enhance the impression the reader has of a character. What have you read or written about jewelry that helped describe a character?