€2,500 - €3,500
A RETRO RUBY AND DIAMOND TANK RING, FRENCH, CIRCA 1945 The bombé mount designed as two overlapping scroll-form bands, one channel-set with calibré-cut rubies (probably synthetic), the other with brilliant-cut diamonds, to a tapered hoop, mounted in 18K gold, ring size J The bold sculptural form and warm gold mounts are characteristic of retro jewellery, produced in Paris during the occupation years, when jewellers and workshops turned to yellow gold and vivid coloured stones with renewed vigour. The dynamic opposing scrolls demonstrate the period's mastery of mass and movement in jewellery design. The wartime context is significant in understanding the scarcity of precious gemstones at the time. The disruption of international supply routes made natural stones such as rubies particularly scarce in the Paris market during the early 1940s, and even the leading houses turned with pragmatic elegance to synthetic sapphires and rubies grown by the Verneuil flame-fusion process and virtually indistinguishable to the eye from their natural counterparts. Such synthetic stones, when original to a piece of this period and quality, are entirely consonant with its history and should be understood as in intrinsic part of its wartime character rather than any diminishment of it.
Rubies: of pinkish-red hue, medium vivid tone, probably synthetic (inclusion free), all well matched in colour Diamonds: bright and lively Eagle's head for French 18K gold Normal signs of wear, overall in good condition Total gross weight approx. 19.1g
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