Featured Antique gold and garnet ring, B&K mark. Help please.

I guess this is the first thread where we'll miss Susan's (Ladybranch) expertise and help.

It is a 19th century Historic Revival gold and synthetic garnet ring.
Just a B&K (manufacturer?) mark, no gold mark or fineness, but tests as low grade gold.
I bought it in Germany, if it is German made, probably 8 or 9k.
Can't find anything on B&K, except someone else enquiring about a B&K mark on an Art Deco gold and emerald ring. I don't know if it was exactly the same mark. Any ideas?
Thanks for looking.

 

Interesting symbols on the shank. I wonder if they are just decorative, or if they are supposed to mean something?

 

I think they were inspired by the archaeological discoveries at the time.
The German Heinrich Schliemann was involved in excavations in Mycenae in Greece and Troy in Turkey.

 

AJ, I'm pretty sure that's a E & K inside that mark.....check below.....

 

I thought so too at first, and researched that first, found nothing.
After cleaning it, it looked more like a B, but it could still be an E. I'll get out the alcohol again. For the mark, not for me.

 

A bit blurred, the sun is going down, I'll try again tomorrow.

 

That last shot makes it look like a B, but beyond that...dunno. What I want to know is why anyone would make a synthetic garnet when the real ones are everywhere in the Czech Republic to this day and it would have been cheaper to use a real one. Odds are it's a synthetic ruby or maybe even a real red spinel; just about all factories but the really high end ones used synthetic rubies and sapphires in Deco jewelry regularly. I'd run a tester over that and see where it beeps. If it's a garnet, the B&K could be a Prague manufacturer as easily as not, or maybe Lithuanian? The design on the sides is done in a method I associate with the Baltic Republics and places like Ukraine. The Poles mark the holy hobgoblins out of their pieces, so it's not Polish.

NICE ring btw; I'd be too busy wearing one like that to sell it.

 

Thanks evelyb.
Tested it, 4, so probably sphalerite again.
In Europe sphalerite is mainly found in Germany, Rumania, Italy and Spain. It was also sold to other countries of course, but in the 19th century there were pretty set traditions, for instance I've never seen sphalerite in traditional Dutch jewellery.
I think we can rule out Spain, higher grade gold, better marking. Rumania had either that very baroque Austro-Hungarian style, or an ethnic style with filigree, etc.
The Baltic countries and Ukraine were imperial Russian at the time, with Russian marks.
Yes the Poles are wonderful in their marking, but the 19th century was the time of the Polish Partitions, so their marks would be Russian, Prussian, or Austro-Hungarian.
Doesn't feel Italian either, though they are notorious for unmarked gold jewellery.
I think we're back to Germany. Historic Revival was very big there, especially after the Schliemann expeditions of the 1860s-70s.

I've had the ring for years, really like the archaic look. But it's too big for me, even in summer when I have sausage fingers.

 

Knot it into some rattail cord and wear it as a pendant? Or maybe hang it on one of those 70s/80s charm holder pendants. I've never seen sphalerite in person as far as I know; it's not a stone used much in American jewelry; the Germans didn't export much to the USA. The Czechs sure did, especially about 40 years later, but not the Germans.

 

Sphalerite is rare, even in 'sphalerite countries', which include the US. Here is another one, it is American, I am keeping it for now:
https://www.antiquers.com/threads/m...oi-et-moi-ring-help-please.18589/#post-253331
It seems that ruby red sphalerite is found near Tiffin, Ohio.
I hadn't seen sphalerite until a couple of years ago, maybe I am turning into a sphalerite magnet?
I think I will list this revival ring, in spite of the nice decoration and shape. I always buy things I like, which means I also sell things I like. But then there is space to consider, and medical cost.

 

I seemed to attract aquamarine for a while. Garnets follow me around whining, too, but they're a lot more common than sphalerite. Apparently it's so soft no one here wants to deal with it.

 

Only the very brave.

 

I'm told it likes to break instead of facet in addition to being soft. Every so often I see a raw diamond in a modern ring. Does anyone ever set the stone uncut?

 

I don't know, but I found this little owl, carved from Spanish sphalerite, quite a task with such a fragile stone:

http://gem-sphalerite.com/carved-sphalerite/130-233-carved-sphalerite-owl

I read on the same site that red sphalerite is very rare. Good to know, both of my sphalerite rings have red stones. A very rare colour in a rarely used gemstone.

 

I've seen a few faceted opals, gem work in the same ballpark of difficulty. Carving a cake is hard enough.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphalerite

 

Faceting opal is easy,it does not compare to sphalerite in any way.