Featured Does anyone know the actual construction of such cross pendant?

I won this cross at an auction but haven't got it yet, they stated it as gold in the description, it is often referred as capucine cross, some of other examples, however, are described as gold and silver？Is it true that some parts of these crosses, including mine, would potentially contain silver rather than solid carat gold?

As mine has a significant weight over 20g I do hope 99% is gold!

 

Beautiful find, shammie.
You are right, it is a Capucine cross. It is from the Provence region of France. The stones are likely to be rose cut diamonds or possibly senailles.

A few Capucine crosses a bit down this page:
https://www.bijouxregionaux.fr/en/contenu.php?idcontenu=14

The diamonds are probably silver backed for clarity. Silver was often used for diamonds, because gold would make them look yellow.
The silver would be tarnished by now, which accounts for the dark colour of the stones.
So your cross is likely to be gold, but it could have bits of silver behind the diamonds. That is often the sign of an antique European jewel.

 

Nice cross!
Aj said, the diamond chips were backed with silver foil
Also, these 'doppen'/bezels were usually hollowed out and filled with some kind of wax
Just speaking out of my own experience with these types of foil set diamond chips

 

Thank you! I'll post more pic when I received it

 

I see, I noticed some examples having cracks over that area showing it's hollow behind, my flemish cross also have such bezels, but even if there's wax, probably won't count much in the total wight? So will still be fine!

 

Shamster, no idea about weight. i never bought a gold one
Beautiful anyhow

 

I was indeed surprised to find an 8cm long cross would have the same weight as my 9ct long guard chain

 

Gold was even more expensive then than it is now. I've never seen one like that before, but silver foil backing diamonds sounds dead on.

 

I'm totally confused.
The description says "peso bruto total 9.86g"...
And you say 20g...

 

the first pic was mine, and the second pic was another example I found which includes silver in the description

 

If it's more than 90% carat gold ( and 14ct or 18ct in this case) in 20g, then I'm paying close to scrap

 

Ah, but it is an antique collectible, so worth more than scrap.

 

Aahh! Good for you
20g is consistent with the size of your cross
I think you have at very least 80% of this weight in gold. Wax is light and shouldn't fill the whole piece