Featured 18kt Gold Ring - Any ideas of age?

I know this may well be an impossible question to answer, but I thought I'd try anyway.

I have here an 18kt gold ring which I bought at the flea-market last week. I liked it because of the blue-coloured stone set into it. I don't know what it is, and neither did the seller (he guessed amethyst). I showed it to another dealer and he thinks sapphire.

I'm going to get it tested properly this weekend.

But that aside - does anybody have any ideas about how old this ring might be? Is the style indicative of any particular era or location?



The only marking is <750> which is stamped inside (and outside) the gold band, in a sort of diamond-shape border, for 18kt gold.

 

I see similar items here in the UK, if hallmarked they are usually 1970's. Could well be a sapphire, although the large window could perhaps suggest a spinel or topaz too. Looks a nice quality piece either way.

 

Ooooh, topaz!!

I'll hopefully find out this weekend for sure. Gonna take it to a couple of jewelry places and see what's what.

 

Lab-grown sapphire is my guess & 70s seems right for age.

 

I'm not bothered whether it's lab-grown or natural, honestly. Just so long as it is an actual stone, and not just a fancy piece of blue glass they broke off of some old soda-bottle or whatever.

 

I don't see the chipping or scraping a glass stone set in a ring that gets much wear suffers, although of course maybe it wasn't worn much. On the other hand, corundum is very tough. They grow it in a variety of colors.

 

It took nearly three weeks, but I FINALLY took the ring to a jeweler who knew what he was talking about.

The guy was a goldsmith and jeweler who made his own stuff. I took the ring off and he was checking it out with a lot of interest.

He said it was likely European, made in Italy, and definitely 18kt gold. He was fiddling with it and he said:

"The stone is loose. Here, I'll tighten it for you".

"OK".

Took out his tweezers to tweak the bezel a bit to hold the stone more firmly.

"What stone is it?"

"I have NO IDEA. I've asked three people and gotten three different replies, and no jewelry shop I've asked has gotten back to me".

"I can tell you what it is, gimme a minute..."

He did a refractive index test and came back.

"Sapphire".

 

Nice, did he tell you if it was lab grown or natural?

 

That, he couldn't tell me. He asked me what others had said, and I told him.

"Wrong colour and refraction for amethyst. It's a sapphire. It's a pale sapphire, but sapphire".

 

Ah, shame as that makes all the difference. A lab grown one is ok and still makes it a decent ring, a natural one would make it much more valuable.

 

I'm not that bothered whether it's lab-grown or natural, so long as I know what it is. Perhaps at another date I'll take it to get reassessed and find out a bit more.

 

I'd say odds on lab grown. They've been making them since the 1920s and they wre common in the Deco era. It's an 18k setting, so the real deal wouldn't surprise me, but a synthetic would fit with an old ring. Odd thought : Montana Sapphire? A lot of those are lighter, but completely natural. Mined in Montana, hence the name.

 

They were growing corundum crystals then, but originally it was small rubies used in watch movements. Getting big & getting blue both took longer.

 

They were in use by the 30s though; all those calibre-cut sapphires and rubies in Deco jewelry were synthetic for the most part.