Diamond Heart Pendants from The Diamond Store.co.uk

Diamond heart pendants have been featuring heavily recently in television  and films with Sarah Jessica Parker often wearing a stunning pendant in Sex and the City, celebrity clothes horse Victoria Beckham was photographed recently wearing one.  And the most famous of all is in the movie Titanic with Leonard di Caprio and Kate Winslet playing Rose who wore and lost the fabulous Heart of the Ocean diamond pendant which was based on the famous Hope Diamond.

Tiffany & Co are famous for their diamond heart pendants with Audrey Hepburn raising their profile even higher during the famous film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”. 

It is not completely clear how the heart became the icon for love.  The Victorians loved it as an item of jewellery and embellished it in many ways, but it can be traced back much earlier to the Catholic Church who claim that the symbol of the Sacred Heart came about during the seventeenth century when Saint Margaret Marie Alacoque had a vision of a heart shape surrounded by a crown of thorns.  The heart symbol can be seen in many early stained glass windows and cloisters representing the soul of Jesus Christ.

One of the most interesting explanations on why the heart is depicted in its stylised shape and not in the form of the natural human organ, originates from North Africa during the seventh century BC.  A city called Cyrene cultivated and exported a valuable giant fennel like plant which was reputed to have birth control qualities called Silphium.  This was strongly refuted by scholars at the time.

It is believed that the powers granted by this plant assisted romantic love (suppose it was their version of  “free love” which is more modernly attributed to the invention of the birth control pill!)  The coinage in Cyrene featured a seed pod of the revered Silphium which was in the shape of the stylised heart we recognise today and this is why it has been drawn in this way since that time.

But putting the giant fennel aside, a diamond heart pendant is the perfect gift for Valentines Day or any other day come to that.  It is a timeless piece of jewellery which can be worn for any occasion.