Featured Pentagon star ring with symbols, please help !

Hello everyone,
I have got this 14k hallmarked ring in white gold that has this pentagon star with symbols and a different colour enamel on it and would like to know more about it.
At first I thought they are chess symbols, but I have a feeling that I am wrong.
Furthermore, does anyone recognise the design and how old is it likely to be. Because is marked 14k I am inclined to believe that it may have been made somewhere in Europe.
Thank you.
Kind regards,
Simona
@Any Jewelry
@Ownedbybear
@Bronwen
@PepperAnna
@mirana
@KSW

 

It's a fraternal ring. Order of the Eastern Star.

https://easternstar.org/about-oes/

Debora

 

14k is generally not a European mark. It is usually US or Asia, in this case US.

 

Agreed it is an Eastern Star ring, a Masonic order that allows women related to Masons to be members.

Age...white gold was commercially used after WW1 and that filigree makes it look 20-30s in age.

 

Not actual filigree, but ajour or openwork.

 

Brilliant, thank you so much, am enjoying the learning. xx

 

Agree re date.

Debora

 

I had heard of "plique-à-jour" but not "à jour". Wiki says it is work where metal is cut. This seems cast though? Is it still referred to in this way, though the metal was not directly cut to make this ring?

I tried searching Lang Antiques and could only find work like this referred to as "filigree" with "à jour" only in reference to plique-à-jour, so perhaps filigree is the colloquialism that people typically recognize?

 

"ajour" usually refers to pieces with open work that is pierced with a jeweler's saw.

https://eragem.com/news/category/jewelry-history/page/9/

https://orchid.ganoksin.com/t/ajouring-patterns/54185

 

Yes, that is what I read, thus my question about when a piece is cast and not cut.

 

Openwork...... https://www.callagold.com/definition/jewelry-definition-openwork/

 

As you discovered, ajour is from the French 'à jour', which means (open) to the day(light).
The term ajour can be used for anything with holes or piercing, it is also used for ajour knitwear and sometimes even for decorative cast iron and other materials.

The alternative which I gave is 'openwork', which is simply the English language term instead of the more international term.
As Holly said, ajour "usually refers to pieces with open work that is pierced with a jeweler's saw". So usually, not exclusively. For pierced work I often use the term 'pierced', but it is certainly ajour.
If you prefer to use ajour exclusively for work pierced work, you can of course, just remember that it isn't a golden rule.
I am also fine with 'opengewerkt', or any other language, as long as you don't call it filigree, the word you used in post #4.

Filigree is always made of wire, and that is a golden rule.
Filigree is derived from the Latin words "fil" and "granum", wire and grain, because a lot of filigree is decorated with tiny globules or grains.

I don't know which people would recognize this as filigree, I have never met them.

 

Filigree appears to be an acceptable colloquialism here, at least when searching for items of similar type.

If someone is wanting to find more Art Deco of similar style and creation then à jour doesn't seem to find anything that isn't enameled, but filigree brings up all of it. Bay results for à jour are for enameled plique-à-jour, ajour has zero, adjoure has 4 modern results, filigree has thousands. Openwork is used, but at much less frequency with 43 of art deco listings.

Even Lang Antiques, running their jewelry resource site, only lists and describes these art Deco pieces under filigree and lists à jour as plique-à-jour only. They also say the term à-jour is only for describing work with open backs.

You wanted to be specific about the word used, so I did my due diligence to look up a word in a context I had not seen it. If filigree is specific to thread and grain must be used, then is à jour also specific to cutting must be used? Is there a different term when it is cast with no such work to the finished form? If terms can also be used when the piece is cast, then why à jour when Art Deco pieces use milgrain mimicking granulation?

I suspect (American English) language has done what it wants as usual and run off with filigree to use it as it wishes in 2023. A useful word for finding Art Deco of this style, or in describing these works to other "lay people" lol. But if you're speaking to a jeweler or a curator, openwork is perhaps what you should say. Although even the jeweler's sites can't agree ... Which is why I try to stick to expert's books or museums for deep research.

Sorry to remind of the horror that Americans, as usual, just steal words and do as they please with them. I am always happy to learn more and have been reading nothing but a plethora of research books for several months now so you know I'm good for the ongoing study!

 

You are confusing ajour with à jour. If you check my posts, I call it by the proper name, ajour, not à jour.

As you would expect when you search for à jour instead of ajour.
But remember, ebay is not known for correct usage of terms or names.
For example, when I search for turquoise, I also use search terms turquis, turques, torques, torquis. They all yield results, but that doesn't mean they are correct.

They should know better.

Light has to be able to show through somewhere. In the case of this ring, the light can come in from the sides.

Gree is part of the term, but granules aren't always used, as I explained before.

An ancient Latin term and a much later French term originate from two different languages, periods, and traditions. As a consequence, the use and meanings given to them are different.
There is no blueprint for cultures and languages. Terms, languages, periods and traditions can never be compared one on one, whatever discipline you are talking about.

Depends on the type of casting, for instance die cast is one, lost wax another.

As I said before, à jour isn't the term for this type of work, it is ajour.
Milgrain is a type of decoration, it does not a apply to the construction.
Besides, the presence of real granules on a piece does not make it filigree. For instance, the ring below is decorated with granules, but no one would call it filigree, it is called granulated:

Very likely. But we don't have to run with them, here on Antiquers. Let's try and use the correct terms. We all come here to learn, and it is good if we can also pass it on as correctly as we are able to.

Perfect, and I know you have learned a lot already.
I also keep studying. And forgetting.