was
done with a knife, and for making the ring apertures a pick was
commonly used. They were then polished with a piece of hard wood,
moistened from time to time to soften it.
This
still primitive form failed to satisfy the amateur ring-makers, and
soon some of them began to engrave their rings with the point of a
pocket-knife, and others, more ambitious, encrusted them with small
pieces of copper, either mortised or rivetted in. Although many of the
rings were undoubtedly the work of entirely un-practiced hands, of
course in any of the great modern national armies men of all trades and
professions are represented, and hence the really fine examples of
these war-time rings have been the work of those familiar with the
jewellers' art. So eagerly did some of the soldiers pursue this
avocation, that when their aluminum threatened to give out, they would
look impatiently for a bombardment to get a new supply.37
The
" add-a-link " ring is made up of a series of small links which all
snap one in the other. The purchaser buys one with the number of links
requisite to fit the finger exactly. If he wishes to have a stone in it
he buys a link with a stone inserted therein. A plain link is snapped
out of the ring and the link with the stone is snapped in. Sometimes
these rings are made up of a variety of stones and then again with only
one stone. It is possible in this way for the purchaser to obtain, at a
moderate cost, a variety of settings, changeable at will. Moreover, a
ring of this type can be enlarged as the finger grows larger.
Among a number of ring-types designed for the practical convenience of the owner and only worn tem-
37 " Les bagues des tranchées," L'Illustration, July 3, 1915, p. 20, with cuts showing soldiers at work and specimens of their rings.
