DATE: Art Deco, c.1920

Cute Art Deco cluster ring with an (unusually) square shaped head (they're usually round or oval). The central sapphire is a vibrant royal blue colour, beautifully complemented by the icy white diamond border. It dates from the early 1920s, crafted in 18 karat yellow gold with stones set in platinum. While the diamonds are natural, the sapphire is "lab-grown", meaning it's the same mineral composition as naturally occurring sapphire (corundum, or Aluminium Oxide) but was created by a human in a laboratory without help from the forces of nature. Like the invention of paste gemstones 200 years earlier, lab-grown sapphires could (and did) command higher prices than their naturally formed counterparts. In part because they were still really expensive to make, and in part because once again they represented, through technology, man’s ability to replicate one of Nature’s most prized creations. 

STONES 

Blue Sapphire (lab grown)

Brilliant Cut Diamonds (18pts total)

MEASUREMENTS 

Head: 9.3 x 9.3mm

Width of band: 2.1mm

WEIGHT 

2.7g

MARKS 

Stamped 18ct & PLAT

CONDITION 

Very good, light wear commensurate with age