DATE: Edwardian, c.1910

A stunning Edwardian period solitaire ring set with a blue/violet sapphire and diamond shoulder accents. It’s beautifully proportioned, and crafted in 18 karat gold with the platinum claws and settings typically found in jewellery of the era.

The principal stone is a “lab-grown” sapphire, with colour akin to those mined in Sri Lanka (Ceylon). The term “lab-grown” means that it’s a real sapphire in terms of mineral make-up – corundum – but was created in a laboratory, which partially accounts for its spectacular colour and lack of internal inclusions. By the 1920s, the process of growing sapphires and rubies had been more-or-less perfected, meaning almost any shape, size, or colour could be “made to order”. Like the invention of paste gemstones 200 years earlier, lab-grown sapphires could (and did) command higher prices than their naturally occurring counterparts. In part because they were still really expensive to make, and in part because, once again, they represented, through technology, man’s ability to replicate one of Nature’s most prized creations. It was all very Modern, so fitted in perfectly with the cultural and societal movements of the early 20th century.

STONES

1.25ct Blue Sapphire (lab-grown)

Single Cut Diamonds

MEASUREMENTS

Head: 7.5 x 7.5mm

Rise off finger: 6.2g

Width of band: 1.5mm

WEIGHT

2.6g

MARKS

Stamped 18ct & plat

CONDITION

Excellent