Jerusalem 800 cross with blue stone

Any ideas on thebay age of this cross? I'm thinking the stone might beven glass? is this a Maltese Cross?
TIA

 

The stone is probably synthetic or glass. Try it in natural light and see if it turns purple - if you're lucky it's "alexandrite glass", and it changes color. Age on the cross ... 50s/60s? It's a classic Jerusalem cross, and they've been made since forever, so it could be older but I wouldn't guess much newer.

 

OK ty... I can't wait to take it outside in the light...

 

I agree, classic Jerusalem cross. Given the silver fineness of .800 I think it could be a bit older, maybe '40s. I don't think they used alexandrite glass in these.

It is best to remove the verdigris before it can do any damage. Verdigris is quite common on silver of lower finenesses, they have a higher copper content.

 

No, but they may have been using lab grown color change sapphires. Certainly there is a lot of 1940s Egyptian jewellery using them. I have a cross pin pendant marked Jerusalem/Silver/999 and a pair of almost matching earrings marked 900 that are set with color change sapphires, but do not know when they date to.

This is the current crop on eBay, ordered with the highest priced first:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=silver+jerusalem+cross&_sacat=48579&_sop=16

Center stones of all different colors, including light blue, and silver fineness ranging from 900 - 999, with some just marked silver. Tricia's is the first one I can recall that was marked 800, making me wonder if it could have been made elsewhere & only marked Jerusalem to indicate it was a souvenir from there. Not sure it would feature a stone of that color if it was made before the nation of Israel was established.

 

A lot of Palestinian/Israeli jewellery marked Jerusalem was actually made in Bethlehem. This cross could also be Bethlehem made.
The style of these Jerusalem crosses looks Palestinian to me, but they could also have been made by Jewish Israelis with a Middle Eastern background of course.