the antique victorian yellow diamond and rose cut diamond navette ring

A Victorian diamond navette ring on a grand scale. The marquise-shaped head is a little over 46mm from point to point, long enough to reach from knuckle to knuckle, and the whole ring weighs just under ten grams. Thirty-three hand-cut diamonds are cut down and grain set across it.
At the centre is a mixed-cut marquise diamond measuring 13.85 x 6.78mm, independently assessed at 1.00 to 1.50 carats. It faces up a fancy light brownish yellow, and through the stone's crushed-ice texture in small parts, the light breaks into flashes of rainbow colour. How much of that colour belongs to the diamond itself is unknowable; the setting is closed at the back and possibly foiled beneath, so the stone cannot be measured for depth or examined loose. That is also why the weight is an estimated range rather than a single figure. Fancy coloured diamonds like this one are renowned for their rarity, and to have a stone with a natural colour like this is truly impressive.
Above and below the marquise sit a pair of triangular rose cuts, with six smaller rose cuts spaced around them, so that the central stones form an inner navette within the head. Framing all of this is a border of twenty-four rose-cut diamonds of varying shapes, no two quite alike. The thirty-two supporting stones are estimated at 1.80 to 2.20 carats, which puts the complete ring somewhere between 2.80 and 3.70 carats. Turn it over and the work continues: a pierced gallery beneath the border row, triple split shoulders, and a bevel-edged shank. The ring is handmade, and while the settings show their age in places, every stone is secure.
There are no hallmarks to date it by. The mount has been electronically tested and assessed as 15 carat gold, a standard used in Britain only between 1854 and 1932, which sits comfortably with the assessed date of circa 1840 to 1910. Foil backing on stones as seen in this ring is unusual for the Victorian era. A closed, foiled back is a Georgian technique, from the days when a sliver of reflective metal sealed behind the stone made diamonds glow under candlelight, giving diamonds an otherworldly and ethereal look. The navette shape, on the other hand, was a Victorian favourite. This ring wears both periods at once.
A dress ring first and last, one that covers the finger and needs nothing worn beside it.

Antiques.co.uk Ref: A7Q3XD9V8

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