Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Object Description- "Carla's Wedding Band"

The object that I have is "Carla's Wedding Band." So far I have only seen a picture of it from one angle so am reduced to making inferences from the photo and comparing them to generalizations offered by other sources. Wedding bands (also known as rings) are circular pieces of metal varying widely in size, make, production and price worn to celebrate or identify the marriage of the wearer. They are produced to fit around the base of the ring finger of a human hand and sold in a variety of sizes that correspond to the circumference of the ring. National jewelry retailer Zales sells rings from 3 to 13.5 in size, which are equal to 14 to 22.6mm in circumference. Without a to scale photo, it is impossible to tell what the size is of this particular ring.

Wedding bands can be made from a variety of metals that partially determine the range in prices they are sold for. A survey of bands available on online auctioneer eBay includes bands made of gold, platinum, tungsten, stainless steel and titanium. Carla's band appears to be gold or gold plated.

Wedding bands are often produced or sold as matching sets. Carla indicated that this ring was one of a pair she characterized as "inexpensive and generic," meaning it may have been mass produced--as opposed to handcrafted--and may be identical to at least one other ring.

A variety of stones can be affixed to wedding rings. They can also be engraved with patterns or names. From the angle and small description provided by the owner, there doesn't appear to be any stone or engraving on this particular band. From the side photograph it appears uniform and absent of any ornamentation or stones, although a view from another angle could reveal otherwise.

The ring sits in a hinged container Carla calls its "coffin." It would appear to be somewhere between two to four inches in its height, width and depth and made of plastic or cardboard. The ring is nested in what appears to be velvet or a black fabric similar in appearance. There is a gold accent on the container.

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