Twelve months, twelve stones. The list is a tradition, not a prescription — it has been rewritten several times, most recently by a jewellers' trade association in 1912, and again in 1952 and 2002 when stones were added. Nobody found anything out. They just added stones.
We tell you that because the stones are worth wearing on their own terms, and because we would rather you knew where the list came from.
Choose the month you were born.
Winter
- January — Garnet. Named after the pomegranate. Buried with people long before it had a month.
- February — Amethyst. “Not drunken”. Priced with ruby and emerald until Brazil flooded the market.
- December — Blue Topaz. A blue that did not exist before 1970.
Spring
- March — Aquamarine. We do not carry it yet. Inside, the blue stones we wear instead — and we say so.
- April — Diamond. We set moissanite, found in a meteorite crater in 1893. We always say which is which.
- May — Emerald. We do not carry emerald. Inside, the greens we would wear in May instead.
Summer
- June — Moonstone. The blue that moves across it is the stone's internal structure scattering light.
- July — Ruby. The same mineral as sapphire. A trace of chromium and a naming convention.
- August — Peridot. Some of it arrived in meteorites. It only comes in one colour.
Autumn
- September — Sapphire. Second-hardest thing on earth, and it chose the colour of the sky.
- October — Opal. Not a crystal. Silica spheres with water still trapped between them.
- November — Citrine & Topaz. The merchant's stone, and a stone carrying somebody else's name for two thousand years.
Buying one as a gift
Every piece is made to order in solid 925 sterling silver and takes around twenty days. It arrives in a rigid box lined in unbleached linen. If you are giving it, the birth month does most of the work for you — you do not have to guess a taste, only a date.
What we will not tell you
We do not make health claims. No stone here treats, prevents or cures anything, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you something other than jewellery. What these stones have is history, and quite a lot of it. That is what we write about.
Read the Codex for the longer versions.