Featured Vintage Ceylon Sapphire ring.. help identify age?

Really laughed at this. Something of the sort happened in my own family. My maternal grandparents were married until my grandmother died in her mid-80s. Not much more than a year later, my similarly aged grandfather announced his intention to remarry.

While he had dispersed most of his household goods, he had hung on to my grandmother's only good jewellery: engagement ring, a strand of pearls that were an engagement gift, & a pearl & ruby brooch that was a 40th wedding anniversary gift from the family. My mother's only sibling was a brother. It was fine by her if her sister-in-law was given the brooch, but I think she would have murdered if the pearls had been bestowed there or on a new wife.

First intended died before marriage. At the age of 89, my grandfather married a woman of 59 (my mother was 60), but did give my mother the ring & the pearls. When they came to me, I took them with me to find some matching pearl earrings. The clerk no sooner had the necklace in her hands than she declared the pearls artificial. After feigning outrage at the poor clerk, absolutely doubled over with laughter.

 

it's a lovely stone.....my wifes favorite.....i will not be showing it to her...!

 

Hi Bronwen,
I know the feeling. My Grandmothers only good jewelry was an emerald ring which was her Grandmothers and a strand of pearls. The rest was costume. When I came home from the hospital when she died I started to call the family. I called her daughter first, she lived in a neighboring state. I then called her two daughters in law which lived a few houses away. The two were at the house within minutes. I had just moved the ring and pearls to a safe place (my pocket). They were in Grams jewelry box in 5 mins. Saying Oh I gave her that so that is mine, I gave her that, I''ll keep that. in 10 mins they
cleaned the box out leaving three or four pins and two pair of earrings. Her cameo ring and engagement ring disappeared. They asked where her emerald ring and pearls were. I just shrugged my shoulders. My Aunt arrived about three hours later. After my other Aunts had left I gave my Aunt the ring and pearls and said I did not see her cameo ring. My Aunt started to cry. She borrowed the cameo ring last month to wear to a wedding. So much for family.
greg

 

Cindy said it best...." Money , changes everything ! "

Before my Dad could round up his fathers things...my cousin cleaned him out !

 

I have heard so many stories like this, and of siblings who stopped speaking to each other over the division of the spoils. When there was all the administrative stuff to handle with my parents' deaths, I sometimes wished I didn't have to do it alone, but would hear these tales & not mind at all being an only child.

 

Yeah !!!!
I miss having a brother to learn from...or share with...or play with.
I miss having a sister to protect....and love.

I do not miss having a sister who emasculates me...complains all the time...& is a drunk !
I do not miss having a brother who leaches off me, or married rich & now thinks the family is beneath him.....or is in prison !

 

Thank you everyone for the comments I guess i forgot to mention that my grandfather was a Gem merchant, so he used to collect antique jewelry as well along with other antiques. My grandmother probably didn't wear this ring but was kept as a collectible. My mother wears this ring sometimes. So either he had this ring made as he had a lot of these stones with him or it could be a collected item. Either way could be from 50s-60s or earlier.

 

We like Grandpa! The stone could have been cut when the ring was made, or could have been a lot older. My mom's 1960s engagement ring has Victorian diamonds in it; they were recycled from family pieces. IIRC Queen Elizabeth's engagement ring was made the same way - new setting, inherited stones.

As for the family jewelry, after my Dad died we shoved most of it into my sister's safety deposit box. I don't have kids and my niece is due to inherit the lot, and the only pieces I really cared about were the ones Dad handed me years ago already. I've always wondered why families fought over that stuff. No piece of jewelry is worth your family.

 

Your grandfather sounds like a very interesting person, I would love to have known him, and no doubt he would have been a great addition to the forum.
I was thinking about the ring overnight (it is morning now). A very nice distraction when you can't sleep anyway.
Looking at the photo Bronwen cropped, I was wondering about the chip on the side of the sapphire, where the side support meets the mount. That is an unusual spot for a chip, that part is protected by the setting. It looks like the stone was taken out at one time, possibly for the ring to be resized.
If the ring was kept as a collectible, that certainly would suggest history before your grandfather acquired the ring.
Nowadays jewelers often freeze a stone, so it doesn't have to be removed while working on the shank. I don't know when jewelers started freezing gemstones to work on an existing jewel, maybe @Hollyblue knows?

 

I have never heard of anyone freezing a gemstone for soldering operations.For more than 20 years the stones were just held in water with the ring held by a third arm.There has also been spray on foam and jells to keep the stones cool except for opals.

https://contenti.com/kool-jool

 

Thanks for the info.

That's what they did here in the Netherlands about 10-15 yrs ago, when one of my gold rings was resized. The stone was a tourmaline. I hadn't heard of it before, so they explained it to me, and it was actual freezing, no gel or foam. Unfortunately I can't remember the details, but the stone survived, that's all that mattered to me at the time.

 

Thanks Any Jewelry. Yes indeed.. i wish i had known him, could have learned a lot from him.

 

Puts the ring in a whole new light.

I saw this too & wondered about it for the same reason. All the info Any Jewelry & Hollyblue provided about safequarding stones from the heat of doing the metal work is really interesting. And I adore tourmalines!

 

Me three. I've drooled over paraibas ever since seeing one in the Tiffany jewelry case. (didn't even ask the price, Tiffany being Tiffany.) I have a watermelon slice around somewhere, and a schorl pendant, but that blue-green paraiba....

 

tourmalines...have my attention too.....the colors amaze !!!