Featured Can't decide if this is old or not...

I spotted this in a small lot. It's missing one stone. I just can't decide if this is first half ish 19th or a later edition. It's got that silver closed back that I associate with Georgian or early V, but something feels off about it I cant put my finger on. It's got to be no younger than turn of the century (right?), but is it 100 or 200 years old?

Thoughts would be mighty appreciated before I make an offer.

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missing 7 marcasites......

 

Also missing one of the green stones.

I'm going to let others comment on the age, because honestly I'm not sure!

 

I think it's old, but not as old as it wants to be. Exact numbers, not a clue.

 

I’d say late nineteenth into early twentieth. It’s too precise for earlier, and it would have had black dot not marcasite.

 

It is a beauty. I'm going for late 18th.
The style was copied later, even with that radiating shell back of the central stone, but that setting by making cuts in the mount and bending them over the stone to secure it is something I haven't seen on Revival jewellery.

I could be wrong, so paging @kyratango and @Dessert58 for their opinions.

 

A lot of 18th century jewellery was made with great precision. Fakes are usually sloppy, to make them look 'antique'.

Although black dot paste was hugely popular, marcasites were also used in the 18th century. And if the green stones are chrysolites/peridots, they are more likely to be combined with marcasites than with black dot paste.

 

I m also not sure about this one. I cant find anyrhing similar in my books either...The back doesn't do anything for me: they made these shell backs well into the 19th century, as we have seen in some of my finds that I posted here on the forum.
The bow on the top and the way the stones are set are good. Marcasite was indeed used in the 18th century.
The green stones could indeed be chrisolite...
I m in doubt

 

Are you talking about the marcasites that seem to have holes in them, is that actually ones missing?

I'm glad I'm not the only one one the fence about this lol! Nice to know about that style of setting AJ, very interesting and something to watch out for. I'd love it to be 18th, but I also sympathise with the Evelyb and OBB, I almost want to say later too. But then again I was under a small subconcious impression they were cut steel and not marcasites so I think I shall bow to the experts If it goes for under 30 I'll take a gamble on it! Its definitely enough of a statement piece for me to wear, I like simple necklaces chains with BIG pendants!

 

Who don't know either. I am inclined to say 18th but am not pertinent, Dessert is not sure.

 

I’m not sure I can explain this, but here goes. Yes, Georgian gems were made with great precision but they also had a kind of fluidity. This looks a bit too considered. Made with slightly more sophisticated tools.

 

What tools are you thinking about?

 

No idea, but the difference is visible. It's hand tools vs machine. No matter how good the later guys were, there's a difference. Those dots in the casing where the marcasites fell out are what's throwing me. I just can't see a Georgian jeweler putting those in when the stones just don't need them.

 

Oh, I’d risk thirty on it all day long.

 

Early 20th century.
The knife edge “bar” holding the drop tells that to me.
The little holes under the marcassites are generally seen too under half seed pearls, i suppose it has a kind of succion function for holding them

 

Ah, thank you. Would that be round on an 18th century one?

That's what I thought.

 

Awesome thanks so much! Great piece of information to know about the way the bar is constructed. I too would love to know what it would be on an 18th century one!

 

On 18th pieces, the drops are elongated and simply articulated on a ring on the mount. Yet to see a 18th century era dangle hanging from a stem (of course, they perhaps exist...)

 

No bar or stem for the drops in the articulated dangles

 

Of course, I was overthinking it.
I have never seen one on a stem either. But as you say, they could exist.