Engraving your coat of arms on a signet ring means wearing your family’s history on your finger. You still need to find the right arms, adapt them to a face just a few millimetres across and choose the right type of engraving. Here are the steps, as we follow them with our clients in Lausanne.
1. Tracing your coat of arms
Start with family sources: an old signet ring, silverware, a seal, a painting or family papers often bear the coat of arms. Armorials and archives can also help you trace a coat of arms or confirm its description. Bring us whatever you have, even a simple photo: we will study it with you.
2. Adapting the design to the size of the face
A coat of arms is often highly detailed, whereas the face of a signet ring measures only a few millimetres. Certain elements sometimes need to be simplified so that the engraving remains legible. The size and shape of the face, oval, cushion, round or rectangular, are therefore also chosen according to the motif.
3. Representing the colours
An engraving has no colours. In heraldry, conventions of hatching, lines and dots, are used to indicate the colours of the coat of arms. They make it possible to engrave a complete coat of arms in metal without losing its meaning.
4. Choosing the type of engraving
The engraving can be readable directly on the ring, or cut in intaglio and reversed, like a seal: it then leaves a correctly oriented impression in the wax. Let us know if you wish to use your signet ring for sealing, and we will adapt the engraving.
5. Choosing the metal and the shape
18-carat yellow, white or rose gold, platinum or silver: the metal changes the look of the signet ring and the way it ages. We show you examples in our boutique so you can compare shapes and finishes.
Initials and monograms
You do not have a coat of arms? Intertwined initials or a monogram designed for you also give a signet ring great character. To find out how to wear it, read our article which finger to wear a signet ring on.
Your signet ring engraved in Lausanne
We design, make and engrave signet rings in our workshop at 5 rue Centrale. Compose your bespoke signet ring, discover our jewellery engraving service or have a family piece transformed into a signet ring with our transformation service.
