Archive for May, 2007

Harvest Love Knot

Friday, May 4th, 2007

Shanore has discovered the Harvest Love Knot in its investigation of Irish tradition

lknot.jpg

An original Harvest Love knot as seen in the national museum.

Harvest love knots made of straw, were created as a symbol of love. Popular several hundred years ago in parts of Dublin and Ulster.  Created at harvest time, the young man signaled his intent to marry. ‘It was also a constructive way for him to keep his hands busy’

 

lknot2.jpg

2nd sample of an original Harvest Love knot.  

The knot was worn on a lapel or woven into the womans hair.  If the courtship survived and the couple married the following spring,  the love knot would be placed on the altar and on the banquet table..  A symbol of two people coming together and creating new life.

img_0303.jpg

Handcrafted Harvest Love Knot

Shanore has produced a harvest love knot, see image above. It is handcrafted by our master craftsman.  It can be worn as a pendant or as a broach on a lapel.  It comes with a curb style chain.

Ian 

P.S See Sheamus Heaney’s poem about the love knots  http://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/poems/heaney/the_harvest_bow.php 

    

 


Posted in Shanore News | 1 Comment »

Where were the first-ever diamonds discovered?

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007
The first diamonds were most likely to have been found in India in ancient times, says Elise B Misiorowski GG, director at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) Museum in the US. “I don’t think there is a record of the first-ever diamond that was found in India, but we know that it was some time in the first millennium BC because there are a few very rare examples of diamonds crystals set in rings made in ancient Roman times circa 300 BC”.   

These diamonds would have come out of India on the old trade routes because India only traded the lowest graded diamonds and high-graded the best for their own royalty.

Diamonds were discovered in Brazil in the mid- to late 1700s just as the diamond mines of India were playing out. Brazil was the source for diamonds, although the supply was very spotty, until diamonds were discovered in South Africa.

“Although there were earlier isolated finds of small diamonds that were largely ignored, the first authenticated South African diamond of any size was discovered in 1866”, says Misiorowski.

In December of that year, the son of a poor farmer, 15-year-old Erasmus Jacobs, found a shiny pebble on the bank of the Orange River, in the Hopetown district of Cape Colony. Soon after, Schalk van Niekerk, a friend of the family, saw Erasmus and his sister playing a game of five-stones using this shiny stone. Van Niekerk offered to buy it and Jacobs mother said he could have it for nothing. This stone was eventually identified as a diamond, weighing 21.78ct.

This stone was named the Eureka diamond and it was cut in England around 1870. After cutting, the diamonds weight was 10.73ct. The stone was donated by De Beers to the people of South Africa and is on view at the Kimberly Mine Museum.

Please view our latest range of celtic eternity rings


Posted in Jewelry Special | No Comments »