Coral Cameo Ring?

Found this ring the other day for $2 completely unmarked. The color of the piece screams 10k and the cameo seems to be made from coral! Cameo appears perfect with no chips. I may get it sized to my finger as it is a nice piece and there are no markings to worry about erasing. Appears to be art nouveau? 1900s? Any idea on the age? Would love to hear from you Bronwen and anyone else that may know something!

 

HOW did you get that both ON then OFF your finger without cutting it off!!!!! It looks SO TIGHT!!!! It also looks VERY NICE from what I can see of it, but I’m no expert either

 

LOL the ring isn't completely round at the moment so it pinches the sides of my fingers. It looks smaller than it is. Still needs to be a tad bigger.

 

I'm not seeing 1900's workmanship...and the face is almost a blur.......
wait for the Joolies to weigh in.....

 

The whole ring looks odd ... gap/bent edge top of ring chest area,maybe bezel and stone not original to ring.Looks like a "mad-hatter" did the engraving,wriggle engraving around bezel then just gouging destroying the wriggle engraving.Bottom of setting out of focus ... no clean up after casting,air bubbles?Ring shank could be a replacement.

 

She is genuine coral, very eroded now. Someone wore her a lot without taking off to wash hands, etc.



She & this setting do not appear to have started life together: that gap should not be there. Vintage, not antique. Why does it look white on the underside? Hollyblue might be correct about replacement shank, can't say for sure.

A jeweler should be able to hammer it back into round, which won't change the circumference but will enlarge the area available for your finger to occupy. Agree it has the look of solid, if not high karat, gold.

 

I can vaguely see lines on the cameo, so it could be coral. But I've never seen coral with such a 'soapy' look.
Did you try the lemon juice test? A drop of lemon juice on coral will form bubbles because of the calcium content.
I agree, it is a marriage, and both have had a rough life. I've seen that 'mad hatter' engraving before, on 60s jewellery. Even then I wondered what the engraver was on.
The white back is a mystery.

 

Oh well lol I'll clean her up and post more pictures. The white stuff is gunk and cleans off. I can see coral lines as well. Got to test for gold purity.

 

'Soapy' may be the perfect word, since soap & water are probably what wore her down & left the white deposit on the back. Spartcom already says grain looks right for coral, but I have seen so many similar ones over the years, I had no doubt on first sight. For one thing, if you're going to make a molded fake, you'd do a better job with the mold than this. Fakes sometimes give themselves away by being too good.

These are all artificial:


The one in the center is particularly convincing. A weird thing about her is that she is much more red/orange to the eye; the camera sees her like this.

 

The camera likes Pretty in Pink. And she is.

 

These are the backs of the cameos in the middle & on the right. You can see both appear to have been subjected to multiple hot needle tests. You can also see how visually deceptive the one on the right is.