McGrath,

I fully understand that the meanings of ribbons may in many cases be simply a symbol of allegance in the way that people wear 'AIDS awareness' ribbons on their lapels etc. The wearing of your teams' football shirt could be placed in the same category.

What interests me is the fact that (as mentioned in my first message)'ribbons' seemed to have been considered to be intrinsically valuable: 'I gave her ribbons and golden rings'

I'm also interested in what different colours may have signified in the eighteenth century.