Beauty has always been an ideal that people have strived to attain. Whether moral or physical, beauty revealed itself as a goal, but also as a means to improve one’s life from several points of view. Consequently, jewellery proved to be an excellent tool for achieving that ideal. Necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings and so many others, became in time a symbol of wealth, of elegance, of status, of belonging to a certain social group. People are inclined to associate jewellery with precious metals or stones. This tendency is partially justified, as the common techniques of producing jewellery involves using such material, or replace it with another that imitates the genuine one. Nevertheless, one thing we should know is that the material of jewellery is carved in does not give its entire value. For instance, religious jewellery such as medallions, crosses or rosaries can be just as well made from wood, as their worth is not an earthly one.
The cultural significance of jewellery has met many transformations. In earlier times, only people of certain ranks were allowed to wear jewels. Moreover, the meaning of wearing jewels varies not only from a temporal perspective, but also from a geographic point of view. For instance, whereas in eastern cultures rings represented a common ornament for men, the western societies in the nineteenth century received that habit with prudence, considering it as a tendency of effeminate men. Nevertheless, the western estimation of men’s jewellery is not a universal one. The market of men’s jewellery is not yet as developed as the female jewellery market, its tradition goes a long way back. The history of men’s jewellery states that, in the beginning, men used ornaments as a sign of power. They were employed either for the sake of a mere adornment, or for more practical purposes, such as intimidating in warfare by exhibiting the fighter’s rank.
