Ladies Sterling Silver Claddagh Ring - Oxford Hall

TJH Small & Narrow Celtic Weave Claddagh Ring - United - Truths

Traditional Irish ring The Claddagh ring (Irish: finne Chladaigh) is a standard Irish ring which represents love, loyalty, and friendship (the hands represent friendship, the heart represents love, and the crown represents commitment). The design and customs associated with it came from in the Irish fishing village of the same name in Galway. The ring, as presently understood, was initially produced in the 17th century. The Claddagh ring belongs to a group of European finger rings called " fede rings". The name "fede" stems from the Italian phrase (" hands [joined] in faith" or "hands [signed up with] in loyalty"). These rings date from Roman times, when the gesture of clasped hands was a symbol of pledging promises, and they were utilized as engagement/wedding rings in middle ages and Renaissance Europe.

The Claddagh ring is a variation on the fede ring, while the hands, heart, and crown theme was used in England in the early 18th century. Towards the end of the 20th century there was an explosion of interest in the Claddagh Ring, [] both as jewelry and as an icon of Irish heritage. In recent years it has actually been decorated with interlace styles and integrated with other Celtic and Irish symbols, but this is a really recent phenomenon that corresponds with the around the world growth in appeal of the Claddagh ring as a symbol of Irish identity.  jims-irish-parlor  has produced Claddagh rings continually since at least 1700, but the name "Claddagh ring" was not used before the 1830s.

Silver May Claddagh Ring with Emerald CZ - Celtic Rings Ltd

As an example of a maker, Bartholomew Fallon was a 17th-century Irish goldsmith, based in Galway, who made Claddagh rings until circa 1700. His name first appears in the will of one Dominick Martin, likewise a jeweller, dated 26 January 1676, in which Martin willed Fallon some of his tools. Fallon continued working as a goldsmith till 1700. His are among the oldest surviving examples of the Claddagh ring, in most cases bearing his signature. There are lots of legends about the origins of the ring, especially worrying Richard Joyce, a silversmith from Galway circa 1700, who is stated to have created the Claddagh style as we understand it.