Featured Can you help me date this ring by style and construction? can't figure out date letter hallmark

Hello all! I have tried figuring out the date letter of this 9ct Birmingham hallmarked ring until my eyes have gone crossed. The "T" is either late 1700s, 1943 (or possibly Victorian but less close in style to that T mark). It's a little confusing because I think that although the date letters are the same as silver markings, I think that the surrounding shape may be slightly different on gold. I had assumed when I bought it that it was either Victorian or Edwardian but now I'm not so sure! Is it from the 1940s in an older style? I had also hoped the stones might be rubies or garnets and emeralds but alas they are paste. Still a pretty ring though! Any help with dating it would be very much appreciated, thank you!

 

Lovely ring, Elen. It is Birmingham 1943. 9ct gold.

 

Ok, thank you for confirming!!

 

Looks like it was re-shanked with a piece out of a jeweler's scrap bin,hard to say when it was made.

 

If it had been reshanked, that would be an illegal hallmark. So very unlikely.

Persian turquoise anyhow, and don’t worry about cartouche shapes!

 

I see what you mean, I had thought resized at some point.

 

Cartouche! That was the word I was looking for

 

If this was made in the UK in 1943, they were using whatever jewels came handy since I doubt any were being imported.

 

I'll take another look with my loupe!

 

Isn’t the join a sign of perhaps some of the plain area of the shank being cut out to make the ring smaller?

 

It has a cut on both sides of the shank,usually called half shank replacement.

 

Ah, I could only see the one side with the clear join.

 

It has two careful cuts, done to avoid the hallmark. That's what a decent jeweller does. Using a half ring with an existing hallmark to replace part of the ring is illegal unless you have it assayed again.

 

Exactly. That way you don't lose the assay marks. It is what good jewellers in assaying countries do. The bad ones cut through the marks losing half or all of them so no one knows who the maker was or when it was made.

 

Yup, it’s sheer laziness on their part, too.

 

To me that ranks as bad, when it is a craft that requires precision.

 

Totally agree. I had Himself’s gold signet resized and my Pa’s silver one basically rebuilt. In both cases I used local Indian heritage jewellers. I’m a tad biased, but I’ve found them to really understand gold and silver work.