Featured Mysterious ring

Hi dear Members,

Here is my latest purchase: an unusual golden ring with flat cut amethysts and a seed pearl.
It was checked by a jeweller and it is 18K gold, it also has a hardly readable French "Owl" hallmark (that was used from 1893 for an imported jewellery, or one with unknown origin).
The face of the ring is not glossy, but has a matt kind of pattern around the stones.
The back side of the ring is a bit confusing, as I can't understand the purpose of the horizontal stripe...
Also, it looks like the ring "face" is made of yellow gold, and the "hands" and ring itself - of the more reddish gold.Was it designed like this from the very beginning, or it was updated at some point is a question?
My main question is when it was made? The stones setting makes me think that it is Victorian(?). But the style is unusual, I couldn't find anything similar...
Its shape and design looks a bit Eastern to me, but I could be wrong.

What do you think about it? Maybe someone met a similar shape, or style?

 

That’s lovely. My gut feel is that it’s a conversion. A pendant or earring made into a ring, later. And I’m thinking Indian or possibly Middle Eastern.

 

The top looks Indian to me too. I wouldn't be surprised if someone had a French jeweler make the piece into a ring. A single earring would make perfect sense. Sometimes in the dim past, a pair of earrings would be converted into a pair of rings, and one would be gifted to one of two daughters. Victorians did that here sometimes.

 

I had a similar feeling too, that it was an earring, or maybe decorative slide buckle (it would explain that back stripe). However the conversion was made very neat, if not the difference in the gold colour, I wouldn't had that thought.

 

I heard something like fathers were making earrings for their daughters from the cuff links. A single earring would make a good sense too

 

I’ve sold, on behalf of a friend, a pair of diamond rings which had been made from a pair of earrings. The grandmother had left them to two sisters.

it’s a lovely ring, that.

 

The bar in the back would make sense for a former cuff link too. If there was only one left, why not?

 

Yes, easily could be

 

I doubt it’s a cufflink. Too old for that, I’d say and not from a cufflink culture.

 

A goldsmith working for someone working for John Company.. possible. Cuff buttons and fancy buttons for both sexes go back a long ways. I wouldn't be suprised at anything any more.

 

Anyway, an idea that this ring was first born as a different piece of jewelry looks like a 99,99% true and makes it different

 

I like it.

 

If it was an earring there would have had to have been something for the post to attach to. It looks like the Pearl has an open back like the stones so maybe they’re for an earring post. If not that maybe the bar was added later for strength/support/reinforcement?

Would the stone settings have been so irregular originally or is that later damage?

Striking piece!

 

This is too old for a post. It would have had a hook shaped wire attached at the top. Very easy to remove and camouflage if you’re a decent goldsmith.

Those irregular settings are typical of older Indian pieces.

 

Yeah, if it was an earring, the hook attachment point could have been camouflaged/hidden under the ring frame that was added.

You're right, the pearl has an open back too. The bar is made in the same gold colour as the top of the ring and looks like it was there originally, so could be a reinforcement, as it sits quite tight.

 

Thank you

 

Very nice find nastina, a beauty. The stones look like almandine garnets to me, not amethysts.
I agree that it is a conversion, and I wonder if it was originally the front of a locket.

I think it might be Central-Eastern European, Romania (Transylvania), Hungary.
Google Siebenbürgen jewellery.
Siebenbürgen (= Seven Castles) is the old Austro-Hungarian name of Transylvania. It was a rich region where people wore a lot of jewellery, often ostentatious. This would be a more demure piece by Transylvanian standards.
A lot of jewellery ended up in Austria and Germany when many ethnic Germans/Austrians had to leave after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It is only a small hop across the border from Germany to France.

 

Thank You When I saw first photos of the ring (I was purchasing online) I thought of the almandine garnets too, however seller told me that these are amethyst, when I received it and checked with a local jeweller, he said these are amethysts too, so I gave up. Yet I agree that colour shade of the stones isn't typical for amethysts...As far as it goes, nothing is typical in this ring
You'll be surprised, but I was born and raised in Moldova which is a neighbour of Romania (I even speak Romanian) and I've been in the famous "Dracula" castle in the heart (at least touristic) of Transylvania
Thank you for Siebenbürgen jewellery tip, I'll do some research!

 

It's hard to say, whatever it was originally, the traces have been removed, or hidden very clearly and neatly. I can't find any irregularities on the back sides where the hinges, or hooks could be attached initially.

 

Every part is a mystery as yet. Even the French mark doesn't give much away.

Your Romanian origin was somewhere at the back of my mind, but I wasn't entirely sure. Wouldn't it be nice if the ring was also Romanian.