Featured Can anyone offer any info on this ring?

Hi! I bought this ring recently with my boyfriend in a little antique shop in Bucharest, Romania.

I know it's 14k solid gold as it is stamped 585 (which I think is European?) It also has this stamp IV beside the numbers. A gemologist told me it might be tanzanite and diamond, but he didn't have time to test it.

Any ideas from the photos when it was made or anything like that?

 

Welcome Kasia. Lovely ring, and I agree that beautiful blue looks like tanzanite.
Do you have reason to believe it wasn't made in Romania?
Maybe @Xristina recognizes the mark?

 

Hello, Kasia. I've seen color change sapphire photograph like that, but it would be an unusual cut for that stone, unless... What is the stone like on the underside? Is it flat? I have a ring with a color change sapphire surrounded with pave white topaz that looks something like this. Tanazanite is certainly a possibility.

 

Doesn't look cut at all... looks chipped.

 

Now you point it out, from the one photo, yes it does.

 

Maybe it is the photo? Kasia, could you show us a side view as well?

 

Thanks guys! Sorry it must be the photo it doesn't look chipped when I look at it from whichever way. It is quite pointy on the underside. It seems to have nice facets. Here's more pictures.

I'd say it might have been made in Romania yes, does it look like a particular style in terms of decade? There is some wear on the gold band but the stone looks very good after cleaning.

 

Very pretty on the hand. Looks more like tanzanite there. It may well be tanzanite & diamond, but in the end you will still need a jeweller to confirm it.

 

Way better looking in this pic, not chipped very nice ring.

 

It's probably tanzanite. Take the ring out in the sunlight, and then look at it under a fluorescent bulb and see what happens. If it changes colors, it's a color-change sapphire. If not, probably tanzanite.

 

One is tanzanite & one is a color change sapphire. You can see the difficulty when trying to make a determination from photos.

 

Thank you! I know nothing about gemstones so it's very interesting to test it out in different lights.

My other question is, why is it hollow under the stone? Is it to make cleaning easier or because it's old and that was the norm then?

 

That's a relatively new ring. Tanzanite became a hot stone in ... I think ... the 1990s. That method of marking the ring is also 1990s or later, and usually post-2000 as far as I know.

 

Neither, as far as I know. It's a perfectly contemporary setting. More about style, comfort, letting a little light in. Think evelyb30 is right about tanzanite becoming trendy in the 90s. Trying to remember when I bought mine.

 

It is a beautiful ring, but unfortunately I can't help.. while living in Romania I wasn't' interested in jewelry at all, so I will shamefully admit that I don't know much about Romanian jewelry marks..

 

easier to set...
uses less gold...

 

I'm with the others, it is not very old, just very nice.

I think I started to see a lot of tanzanite at auctions ca 2010. The jewellery would have been second hand, not proper vintage and certainly not antique, so 1990s sounds right.
Tanzanite was used before that, but the style of this ring is pretty recent.

 

Agreed. And because of the light coloration, I would consider that it is a glass or possibly iolite. Those side stones need to be steamed.

 

When I asked an independent gemologist about the stone he didn't mention it could be glass, so I hope it isn't...

 

The opening under the stone is to allow the light to refract and the stone to sparkle more brightly. The "crack" in the stone is possibly an inclusion and not a crack. It does appear to be a tanzanite, but the only way to know for sure on any of the details is to have a gemologist test the stone. It is highly unlikely to be glass, and if that is indeed an inclusion, more likely to be natural. I have owned a couple of antique rings where the naturally earth mined stones had inclusions like this. In terms of dating, I am in agreement, IMHO, this is a more modern setting.

I did want to add; Have the gold tested. The angle of the picture and cut of the stone could be showing the cutlet through to the top which is the tip of the pavilion of the stone