Engraving and Inscriptions

Engraving is the oldest and most enduring technique in memorial jewellery - older than any other form of personalisation, younger only than jewellery itself. An unbroken line runs from the incised inscription on a Roman wedding ring to the laser-engraved fingerprint line on a twenty-first-century pendant. The method has changed radically in technical terms; its cultural function has remained stable: a concrete reference, inscribed into metal.

Three principal methods

Hand engraving

The classic method. Using a steel graver - a short, sharp point set in a wooden handle - the line is cut directly into the metal. The workpiece rests on an engraver's cushion, which allows it to be rotated. The engraver works with considerable pressure and control over direction; good hand work shows a characteristic, slightly angular line with a lively progression.

The technique is slow - a simple initial takes ten to thirty minutes, a complete date of death together with a motto can take several hours. Hand engraving is correspondingly expensive, but technically and aesthetically the finest variant. In the historical mourning jewellery of the Georgian and Victorian periods, hand engraving is the standard technique.

Acid etching

A more industrial variant. The metal is coated with an acid-resistant layer (classically asphalt varnish), the lettering is scratched through this layer with a needle, and the piece is placed in an acid bath for a few minutes - the exposed areas are recessed. The method is faster and cheaper than hand engraving, but produces coarser lines and is poorly suited to very small lettering.

Acid etching was the standard technique for cheaper inscriptions in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In today's jewellery trade it is rarely used - laser engraving has largely replaced it.

Laser micro-engraving

The modern standard technique. A focused laser beam vaporises metal at precisely defined points, producing lines, planes and even tonal gradations with a precision that manual methods cannot match. Advantages:

• Sub-millimetre precision - line widths from around 0.02 mm are technically feasible
• Raster image engraving - entire photographs can be transferred to gold, silver or platinum as greyscale rasters
• Handwriting transfer - photographed handwriting is scanned, optimised in software and cut 1:1
• Speed - a complete inscription takes seconds to a few minutes

Laser engraving is today the standard technique for modern personalisation - initials, dates, handwriting, fingerprint line drawings.

Types of inscription

In terms of content, inscriptions follow a small number of classic patterns.

Initials and dates

The most common form. The initials of the person remembered, occasionally combined with those of the wearer; the date of death, sometimes with the date of birth. Example: J. M. † 14 March 1872. The position is usually the inside of a ring or the reverse of a pendant.

Mottoes and sayings

Common in historical pieces; more restrained in modern ones. Frequently in English and Latin:

• In memory of (with a name) - English, standard in the Victorian period
• Not lost but gone before - a mourning-ring standard, Victorian
• Memento mori - Baroque, a religious admonition
• Hodie mihi cras tibi (“today me, tomorrow you”) - a memento mori variant
• Souvenir, À jamais - French sentimental-jewellery inscriptions
• Zum Andenken, Im Gedenken - the German standard in the Biedermeier period

Handwriting transfer

A modern special form. Instead of a typographically set inscription, the handwriting of the deceased is reproduced - a word, a short line, a signature, often taken from a letter, a postcard or a diary. The original is scanned, optimised for contrast and line weight in the workshop software, and laser-engraved. The finished piece thus carries the individual handwriting of the person remembered - a personal reference one step closer than a typographic inscription.

Fingerprint lines

Strictly speaking not an inscription in the classic sense, but the same technique. The fingerprint is captured with a camera, processed in the workshop software into a high-contrast line drawing and laser-engraved into the metal (see Fingerprint Jewellery). The result is an inscribed line pattern that functions like a very small, very personal inscription.

Material and depth

The depth and appearance of an engraving depend on the carrier metal:

• 18 ct gold - soft, takes hand engraving well, yields smooth, brilliant lines
• 14 ct gold - somewhat harder, slightly more brittle, the standard material for laser engraving
• Sterling silver (925) - soft, easy to engrave by hand, but prone to tarnish discolouration in the recesses of an inscription
• Platinum - very hard, difficult to engrave by hand; laser engraving is the usual technique here
• Steel and stainless steel - modern memorial-jewellery materials, engraved exclusively by laser

In historical practice, deep hand-cut inscriptions were occasionally filled with niello or black enamel to increase the contrast of the lettering (see Niello (Black Inlay Technique) and Black Enamel (Schwarzemail)). With modern laser engraving the recess itself is dark enough, so fillings are usually dispensed with.

Reading and dating inscriptions

Anyone wishing to date a historical inscription should note:

1. Language and style give a rough date - Latin points to the seventeenth to early nineteenth century, English or German to the nineteenth to twentieth
2. Typeface - inscriptions in capitals are older (up to about 1820), mixed roman lettering later
3. Position - the inside of the hoop is standard on mourning rings; the outside points to memento mori rings or posy rings
4. Filled lettering - niello or black enamel are clear indications of high-quality pieces of the eighteenth or nineteenth century

On modern pieces, laser engraving can be recognised by its uniform line weight and typographic cleanliness; hand engraving shows subtle variation in the line and occasional small irregularities.

Engraving today

In modern memorial jewellery the technique is the standard method of personalisation. Three current applications:

1. Classic inscription - initials, date of death, motto. Today mostly by laser, occasionally still cut by hand for premium pieces.
2. Handwriting transfer - a growing practice, above all as an inner-hoop inscription on modern mourning rings or as the principal element of a pendant.
3. Fingerprint laser engraving - as a line drawing on the outer surface of a ring, a pendant or a plaque (see Fingerprint Jewellery).

In every case one thing holds true: engraving is the only personalisation technique that connects material and inscription directly, without interposing a carrier material such as hair, ashes or a hollow setting. It is therefore the simplest and at the same time the most durable way of referring a piece of jewellery to a particular person - and that is precisely what has kept it continuously current across three centuries.