Featured Help with cleaning verdigris?

Wow! that's amazing. You did a beautiful job cleaning it up. The stones and pearls are gorgeous.

 

Thank you so much!!

 

This pendant is really beautiful!
You did a great job of cleaning it!

 

Now that I can see the color variation in the green stones, I suspect they might be demantoid (green) garnets. I have an Edwardian-era gold-filled bracelet with small bezel set stones in similar colors (green with a hint of lime) and was told by a jeweler they're green garnets. The color of demantoid garnets can range from yellowish-green to dark green. The closer the color is to emerald-green, the more valuable. Tsavorite garnets (a different species of garnet) are similar to demantoid, but tsavorite wasn't discovered until 1967, while demantoids were discovered in 1868 in Russia. According to AJSgem.com, "Demantoid garnet is the rarest and most valuable of the garnets and is one of the rarest of all colored gemstones."

 

I am not a green stone lover, but I do love the demantoid garnets. I did notice the color variation; most stones you see now don’t have that as it is considered undesirable I think. Fun to have the changing color to me!! Thank you for the info!!

 

Thank you!!

 

@Joan @Raccoon1977
I was thinking that the pink and green stones look like tourmaline, with the raspberry and various green tones.
I also think the middle piece is polished shell, while the small white orb below is a pearl. Just my opinion!
I do love it!

 

I didn't think of tourmaline, but that does seem like a definite possibility. Maybe a gem tester could tell whether they're tourmaline or garnet. I thought the middle piece looks like a mabe/blister pearl.

 

when Austro-Hungarian then cook it up in the next Gulasch with apple-vinegar. it has a soul and needs to feel home to show its beauty.

 

Looks great Raccoon.

About the stones, I don't think demantoid. I have never seen it on AH pieces, and it was only discovered round about the time this beauty was made.
I see it in Russian jewellery though, and it is beautiful.
The stones first struck me as tourmaline, like Stracci thought.

I agree.

 

It is. The Austro-Hungarian makers generally weren't bothered by that, especially not in rural areas. To me it is one of the charms of AH jewellery. Good materials, but all a bit devil-may-care and at the same time a bit ott. Love that.

 

Are you saying this pendant was made around the 1870s? I'm trying to learn since all I know about Austro-Hungarian jewelry is what I've learned here and searching online. I found only two examples of AH jewelry online with demantoid garnets (but maybe they were incorrectly identified). The first one below on Worthpoint, and the second one on Moira Fine Jewelry. I did find many more examples of British-made pieces with demantoid garnets.

 

To my eyes, the green stones in first pic are paste (crystals), and peridot for the second pic

 

I agree, the ones in the first photo are probably Bohemian glass, and the second looks like peridot.
The lovely Egyptian Revival brooch is Art Nouveau, so not the sought after Austro-Hungarian Historic Revival style. It is beautiful as an Art Nouveau piece though.

I generally see demantoids in Russian jewellery and modern non-Russian jewellery. So maybe the use of demantoids outside Russia is a pretty recent thing.

 

I kind of wondered about the stones in the first example because they're all exactly the same shade of green. For the second example, do you mean because it's Egyptian Revival style it can't be AH? I saw several pieces when I was searching online that were called Austro Hungarian Egyptian Revival--I know many things are misidentified and people include certain key words just to draw viewers. The British-made pieces I saw with demantoids were usually referred to as Victorian, which seems possible since demantoids were discovered in 1868, but then maybe the Victorian term is accurate but not demantoid. It seems I remember someone on this forum pointing out that Christies, or some auction house, doesn't identify gemstones now for a lot of their pieces, but uses kind of a non-specific description. Maybe they've been proven wrong too many times?

 

Instead of the toothpicks, I buy a package of plaque remover brushes (little spiral plastic brushes on fine metal wire) at my drug store or pharmacy.. They have 2-3 sizes and one brush in the tip of the holder will last quite a while. These really do in the cracks and spaces of metal that need cleaning. Just got done with a brides basket using these.

 

Just a quick note that demantoid garnets were used quite a bit in quality American jewelry starting around 1900 - my Riker Bros. dragonfly watch pin from the early 20th century has demantoid eyes:



~Cheryl

 

You know what? I ADORE this critter!

 

SO DO I!!!!!!!

 

Beautiful dragonfly watch pin! I'm getting the impression that most antique jewelry with demantoid garnets have solid gold settings and are high-end pieces.