About the engagement ring

 (Read who-knows-where on 18th April, 2012)

The history of the engagement ring stretches back to 1477 when the Archduke Maximilian of Austria presented the first of its kind to Mary of Burgundy.

The roots of the MR lie in the history of the wedding band itself. According to Dr Stephanie Coontz, author of Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, American men started wearing wedding rings in the 1920s: “Jewellers went on a campaign to make them popular, but it initially made very little headway. The practice began to spread during the Second World War, as a way of signifying, that despite the separation of war, the married man was going to broadcast his commitment by wearing a ring. It became especially widespread in the 1960s and 1970s as new ideas of mutuality emerged, along with growing disapproval of men's traditionally greater freedom to commit adultery with impunity.”