A Short History of the Birthstone

The idea that a particular gem belongs to a particular month is older than most of our other traditions, and stranger.

Its roots are usually traced to a sixteenth-century poem, written (probably) in the 1500s and widely translated: a list of twelve stones, each linked to an apostle, each linked to a month. The poem traveled poorly across languages, and by the time it reached jewelers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the correspondences had drifted — the first stone in the English translation was not the same as the first stone in the Polish, and neither matched the Hebrew breastplate of Aaron from which the whole tradition ultimately descends.

Then, in 1870, Tiffany & Co. published a pamphlet of birthstone poetry. It caught the public imagination. By 1912, the American National Association of Jewelers had stepped in to standardize the list — not as scripture, but as a commercial convenience.

We sell birthstones, of course. But we are also fond of the slightly older tradition, in which the stone is meant to be worn in the month *after* one’s birth, not the month of — a quieter, less gift-friendly idea, and one we prefer.