Man Gold Signet Ring?

Q: Can anyone point me in the direction of a good resource on the web that deals with the history and tradition of these, I'm having a disagreement with a colleague who insists that they should be worn on the middle finger as opposed to the little finger - if that is the case, wouldn't it make it far more difficult to actually use the ring to seal a letter?

A: As to "which finger" - being sublimely ignorant of any formal rules of good breeding, seems to me there are two possibilities: if the ring is inherited. wear it on whichever finger it best fits. If its being newly made, size it to match whichever finger you want to wear it on. I personally prefer the ring finger,'cause I'm more or less used to wearing a ring there; the middle "bird" finger is uncomfortable (to me at least) 'cause I do more things with it than with the ring finger (use your imagination); & my seal ring is too big to wear on my pinkie, & would get in the way (or fall off & get lost). Much more to the point: how to you create a big enough blob of hot wax to bung your seal on it? The sticks of sealing wax from stationers are quite useless. I can only imagine a little kit cooker with a tiny waxpan (aka saucepan) on top - but I've never seen any such thing for sale. what i have read suggests that, because of it's importance, the signet/seal ring was not frequently "worn" at

all. it was kept locked in a secure location, because of it's economic/legal importance. that is why the seal/stamp worn with a necklace or a simple desk style stamp was probably more common than the signet ring. the most common finger to wear a ring (now called the ring finger) was soon complemented by the middle and pinkie fingers, because of the growing fashion to display one's wealth as part of wanting to appear as part the upper crust of society. thus, the "ring finger" and maybe a couple others would already be displaying a ring, so the signet ring was probably only a temporary ring worn on any finger of convenience, that didn't already have a ring.