A diamond heart pendant is now instantly recogniseable as a symbol of love and devotion, but it has not always been that way. This article explores where this iconic emblem derived from and how the heart necklace you wear today has come to mean so much.
Today, to come across a diamond heart pendant is to instantly recognise it as a symbol of love and the soul. From ruby diamond hearts to white gold heart necklaces, the design immediately conjures up thoughts of tenderness and devotion. So by presenting a gift of a heart-shaped pendant, the action expresses a degree of fondness and sentiment towards the recipient.
Yet where did this image and all its connotations arise from? Why was this one organ singled out to represent the most highly valued of emotions? And how did it evolve into the shape it has, as the human heart itself is not so perfectly drawn? The source of the symbol and consequently the use of heart jewellery, goes a long way back. Once upon the time, the Egyptians saw the heart not as the seat of love but as the centre of intellect and rational. However by 500 BC, examples of the heart being used in connection with amour already began to appear in ancient Greek artifacts.
One of the most fascinating explanations for the birth of this icon, is that originally the heart was linked primarily to the eroticism of love and has evolved to mean more over the centuries. In North Africa, around the 7th century BC, a plant called Silphium was traded in the city of Cyrene. This species of fennel was used for birth control and was so highly prized that not only did its perfect heart-shaped seeds feature on coins but was harvested into extinction. The link between this symbol and passion was born though.
Much later, the Catholic Church lays claim to the emblem in the 17th century. In a vision, it is stated that Saint Margaret Marie Alacoque saw what is now known as the Sacred Heart, which was a heart surrounded by a crown of thorns and was felt to represent the soul of Christ. Despite this, there are actually earlier examples of hearts in religious iconography in the guise of stained glass windows and within the adornment of abbeys.
When the symbol became very much en vogue in the Victorian ages, the demand for hearts pendants grew exponentially and some of the most intriguing and intricate designs can be found from this era. Frequently created as heart lockets, the Victorians used them to keep tokens of their affection, from strands of hair to miniature paintings and even the ashes of a loved-one passed.
