The Many Uses and Varieties of Jewelry
Around the world, and for many millennia, civilizations primitive and advanced alike appreciate precious metals and gems such as gold, silver, and platinum, along with gems such as diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and others. Jewelry, for much of history, was restricted to the higher classes of a civilization such as royalty, aristocrats, religious figures or other leaders, and the like. But gradually, jewelry of all sorts also entered the common markets, and even by the 1800s, if not earlier, it was common for relatively modest families to have family jewelry to pass down from one generation to another. This continues today, and many pieces of antique gold jewelry are family heirlooms. Mothers pass on earrings, brooches, and necklaces to their daughters, and fathers may pass on pocket watches, wrist watches, and cuff links to their sons. Many brides and grooms receive gifts like these right before their wedding, for both aesthetics and sentimental value. And sentimental or not,
