The Signet Ring: How to Choose, Wear and Use One

This is the first question and the one nobody asks.

Intaglio means the design is cut into the surface of the bezel, and cut in mirror image. Press it into wax and the impression comes out the right way round and standing proud. This is a working seal, and it is what a signet ring originally was.

Relief means the design stands up from the surface and reads correctly on the ring itself. It looks better on the hand, it will not seal — press it and you get a sunken, reversed impression — and it is what most modern signet rings actually are.

Neither is wrong. But they are different objects, and a ring cannot be both. Decide first whether you will ever seal anything:

• If you want to seal — intaglio, cut in reverse, deep, in a hard metal. The design on the ring will look back-to-front, and that is the sign it is real.
• If you want to wear — relief or a shallow decorative intaglio, cut to read correctly.

There is a convention, it varies by country, and none of it is a rule.

British tradition: the little finger of the left hand. The reasoning is entirely practical — it keeps the bezel clear of the pen when writing, and out of the way of a handshake.

French and much of continental Europe: the little finger of the left hand as well, though the ring finger of the left hand is also used, worn above or below a wedding band.

United States: less codified. The little finger of either hand is standard; some wear it on the ring finger of the right.

The one durable piece of advice is about the hand, not the finger: put it on the hand you write with least. A signet bezel is broad and flat, and on a working hand it catches on everything.

Fit matters more than people expect. A signet should sit snug enough that the bezel stays on top of the finger rather than rotating round to the palm. If it spins, it is too big — and a spinning ring is also a ring that wears its own engraving away against the neighbouring finger.

If the ring is decorative, wear whatever you like. If it has to seal, hardness and detail retention matter.

• Gold, 14k or 18k. The traditional choice. 18k is softer and richer in colour; 14k is harder and holds a fine engraving longer. For a working seal, 14k is the more practical of the two.
• 22k and 24k gold. Beautiful and too soft. The engraving will blur within years of daily wear.
• Sterling silver. Engraves very cleanly and is far cheaper, but it is soft and it tarnishes — which, incidentally, makes an intaglio more legible, since the tarnish settles in the recesses.
• Steel and titanium. Extremely durable, harder to engrave finely, and unsentimental in a way that suits some people exactly.
• Hardstone bezels — carnelian, bloodstone, onyx, lapis. The classical option, and still the best-looking. A stone intaglio releases from wax more cleanly than metal does, which is why gem-cutters had the job for three thousand years.

Four options, in rough order of how traditional they are.

A crest. The historical answer. A full coat of arms — shield, helm, mantling, motto — will not read at the size of a bezel, so what went onto rings was the crest alone: a single figure on a wreath. This is precisely why "family crest" drifted into meaning the whole achievement.

A shield, if the arms are simple. Two or three charges will survive the reduction. Fifteen quarters will not.

A monogram or cypher. Entirely respectable and far older than the fashion for crests. Interlaced initials, or a single letter.

Nothing. A plain polished bezel is a legitimate and rather elegant choice, and it leaves the option of engraving it later.

One piece of design advice worth taking seriously: less detail than you think. An engraver working on a bezel a centimetre across has room for a silhouette and very little else. Designs that reduce well are the ones with a strong outline — which is exactly the quality good heraldic art has always been judged on.

Worth doing at least once, because it explains the whole object.

1. Use sealing wax, not candle wax. Modern flexible sealing wax contains a resin that stops it shattering in the post. Traditional shellac wax is harder and more brittle, and is what you want for a seal that will sit on a certificate under glass.
2. Melt, do not burn. Hold the stick above the flame, not in it, or the wax scorches and goes matt. A wax gun or a spoon over a tealight gives a cleaner pool.
3. Pool it, then wait. Let the puddle spread to roughly the size of a coin, then count to five. Wax that is too hot sticks to the bezel and pulls strings.
4. Chill the ring. Press it against something cold or breathe on it — a cold bezel releases cleanly. Some people rub a trace of oil on it; it works, and it dulls the impression slightly.
5. Press straight down, hold, lift straight up. No rocking. Rocking doubles the edges.

If the impression is faint, the engraving is too shallow for sealing — which brings you back to the intaglio question at the top.

A few conventions that survive because they are sensible.

One signet at a time. The whole point is that it is a single mark of identity.

It is not a formal-only object. Signets were worn daily for centuries, and they look better worn in than pristine.

Expect it to wear. A signet picks up scratches and softens at the edges, and that is the intended appearance. A twenty-year-old signet that looks new has been in a drawer.

Resizing has a limit. A heavy bezel constrains how much a band can be cut and rejoined. Get the size right at the start, and measure at the end of the day rather than the morning.

The signet has been a threshold gift for two hundred years — coming of age, graduation, a commission, a marriage, or inherited outright. It works as one because it is unusual among gifts in being both permanent and personal, and because it is meant to be used rather than admired.

Two practical notes if you are giving one: get the finger measured discreetly in advance rather than guessing, and if you are having it engraved, settle the intaglio-or-relief question before ordering, because it cannot be changed afterwards.

The Heritage Volume sets out what the historical record holds for a surname, including the arms associated with it. How Your Report Is Made explains which parts of it come from public records and which our system builds — including the crest, which is original artwork rather than a facsimile of an armorial entry.

If you would rather track down a documented historical blazon first, our guide to verifying a coat of arms lists the armorials to search.

In a narrower band: the women's signet ring. For the desk rather than the hand: a wax seal.