Hold the symbol next to an anatomical drawing and the resemblance is essentially zero. A real heart is a lopsided muscular lump. The symbol is a neat symmetrical shape with a point.
So where did it come from? Nobody is certain, which is remarkable for something this universal.
The most quoted explanation involves silphium, a plant that grew in North Africa and was worth its weight in silver to the Roman world, partly as a contraceptive.
The city that traded it, Cyrene, put the plant's seedpod on its coins. The seedpod is the shape we now draw as a heart, and the plant was harvested to extinction, which is why nobody has seen one for around two thousand years.
A symbol of love descended from an extinct plant used to avoid pregnancy is either a wonderful coincidence or an excellent joke. Historians argue about whether the connection holds, and none of the competing theories is any better supported.
Here the heart is built out of two wolves. They face each other at the top of the shape, ears laid back along the upper edge and muzzles dipping towards the point, and the sweep of each neck forms one lobe. The centre is left open, with a small knot of Celtic interlace closing the gap just above the point.
Stainless steel in silver or golden tone, so it takes daily wear without tarnishing.
See the wolf jewelry range and our necklace guide.
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