Opinion ID: 886147
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Engagement Ring Symbology

Text: ¶ 29 The custom of giving expensive engagement rings is largely a mid- to late 20th Century phenomenon. Margaret F. Brinig, Rings and Promises (1990), 6 J.L. Econ. & Org. 203, 209. Nineteenth Century etiquette books struggled to identify proper gifts between men and women. Viviana A. Ziegler, The Social Meaning of Money (1994). Expensive or excessively intimate gifts, such as jewelry or wearing apparel, were fit for a kept woman, or perhaps a man's wife, but not as tokens of respectable courtship. Ziegler, at 99. Upper class men and women occasionally exchanged diamond rings as gifts during the 19th Century. Ziegler, at 99. The six-prong gold or platinum setting holding a raised, brilliant-cut diamond, which has become the classic engagement ring style, was created by Tiffany's in the 1870s. Anne Ward et al., Rings Through the Ages (1981), at 198. DeBeers' launched its national advertising campaign in 1939 that promised: A diamond is forever. Brinig, at 206. To cultivate a no-return custom in America, the cartel threatened to cut off supply to dealers who bought diamonds back from purchasers. Brinig, at 209. An interesting correlation exists between the mid-20th Century increase in demand for costly diamond engagement rings and the statutory changes by state legislatures to abolish the breach of promise action. Brinig, at 206. After the Second World War, expensive rings became not just symbols of love, but tangible economic commitments in themselves, and appear to have gained significance as other economic incidents of marriage were in flux. See Reva B. Siegel, Modernization of Marital Status Law: Adjudicating Wives Rights to Earnings, 1860-1930 (1994), 82 Geo. L.J. 2127, 2201-03. As courts closed to women seeking damages for breach of the promise to marry, the cost and the practice of giving engagement rings rose dramatically. Brinig, at 209. By the time Montana barred the breach of promise action, diamonds constituted over 80% of engagement ring sales. Brinig, at 205. Through the late 20th Century, rings remained personal tokens of affection; many couples who spurned the conventions of marriage still wore rings to bear witness to their union. Ward, at 146. Since 1980, however, engagement rings never exceeded 20% of diamond jewelry sales. Brinig, at 212. ¶ 30 This Court acknowledges the customary practice of presenting an engagement ring in conjunction with a promise to marry and we next examine the legal significance of that symbolic association in the context of Montana gift law.