The signet ring is back. Perhaps, like King Charles, who has worn his since the 1970s, you think it never went away, but I can confirm that it did – sometime around the time of the New Labour government, when being seen as a raging toff was bad for business. Now, thanks in part to the Instagram account Signet Ring Social and posh television and film dramas such as Saltburn, the signet ring, or ‘siggie’ as it is referred to by Gen Z devotees, is making a comeback. Perhaps, instead of the hemline index, used as an indicator of bull or bear economic markets, we may consult the signet ring index as a guide to prosperity. Do you see more or fewer ‘siggies’ in a recession, and what exactly does that tell us?

Small but mighty, the signet ring punches above its weight, managing to say so much with so little. Class, bloodlines, patrilineal heritage – it’s all there, twinkling away on the pinkie finger of the left hand. Unlike the male wedding ring, which announces something boring and rather smug – I’m taken, hands off – the signet ring is mysterious, offering up all sorts of social statements: I am descended from aristocrats, I own a vast estate, or simply, I am a gentleman. But........

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