The best jewelry for autumn comes from the ground the season is named for: warm gold, the honey yellow of citrine, the deep red of ruby. These are the colors of fallen leaves and fired clay, and they flatter warm skin in low light. They are also some of the oldest colors people have ever painted with. More than three and a half thousand years ago, on an island in the Aegean, someone painted a woman in exactly these shades, wearing gold at her ear.
The painted women of Thera
In the 17th century BC, a volcanic eruption buried the town of Akrotiri, on the island we now call Santorini, under a thick layer of ash.
When archaeologists excavated the town in the 20th century, they found frescoes of women gathering saffron, of a young priestess carrying an offering, of figures with reddened lips and heavy hoops at their ears. The painters worked with a short palette taken from the earth itself: red ochre, yellow ochre, the black of carbon, and a blue made from crushed glass. Nearly every warm color on those walls came from iron in the soil.
That is the palette of this season, and of the three pieces in this story.
Yellow ochre: citrine
Citrine is the yellow ochre of the jewelry box. It is a quartz, colored by traces of iron, ranging from pale straw to the deep amber of late afternoon. Natural citrine is rare; much of what is sold today is amethyst warmed until it turns gold, a long-accepted practice that leaves a durable stone, 7 on the Mohs scale.
Worn close to the collarbone, a single citrine catches the light the way the low autumn sun does. Our 14k Yellow Gold Necklace with Round Citrine is made for exactly this: one round stone, bezel-set in recycled 14k solid gold, on a 17-inch chain that sits just at the hollow of the throat. It is small enough to wear every day and warm enough to read from across a room. Citrine is also November's birthstone, which makes it a fitting gift for anyone with a birthday as the year turns cold; we wrote about it at length in our guide to November's citrine and topaz.
Red ochre: ruby
If citrine is the light, ruby is the fire. The name comes from the Latin ruber, red, and in Sanskrit ruby was called ratnaraj, king of precious stones. It is a corundum, the same mineral as sapphire, and at 9 on the Mohs scale it is harder than any natural gem except diamond. A ruby can be worn every day for a lifetime.
In the Aegis Ring with Ruby, a round ruby sits between two curling scrolls, the same spiral that Greek builders later carved into the capitals of Ionic columns. The ring is named for the aegis, Athena's shield, which carried the face of Medusa to turn harm away. It is cast in 18k gold vermeil and priced at $60, a rare way to wear a real ruby without waiting for an occasion.
The serpent
On Crete, a short sail south of Thera, the Minoans left small figures of women holding a snake in each raised hand. Archaeologists still debate exactly who they represent, but the serpent clearly mattered: it lived close to the earth, it shed its skin and returned, and it was trusted to guard what was hidden.
The Medusa Ring carries that idea forward. Its serpent coils over the finger, with each scale cross-brushed by hand in 18k gold vermeil, so that the texture moves as the hand does. Worn alone on the middle finger, it is the darkest note in an autumn palette, and the most protective. Its story, from Gorgon to guardian, is told in full in Medusa and the Serpent.
How to wear warm gemstones in autumn
Warm stones belong with warm gold. Yellow gold deepens citrine and makes ruby glow rather than flash, and against the darker fabrics of the season (camel, rust, black, oxblood) all three come forward instead of disappearing. If your skin has a golden or olive undertone, these are the stones that will look most like they belong to you.
Questions we're often asked
What jewelry is best for fall? Yellow gold with warm stones: citrine, ruby, garnet, carnelian and topaz. They suit the colors and low light of the season.
What gemstones suit warm undertones? Stones in the yellow, orange and red family, such as citrine, ruby and garnet, set in yellow gold.
Can you wear a ruby ring every day? Yes. Ruby rates 9 on the Mohs scale and is one of the most durable gems for daily wear.
What does a gold snake ring mean? Renewal and protection. The serpent sheds its skin and returns whole, and in Greek myth it guarded sacred places.