Victorian or deco alexandrite ring? | ||
| Gemstones354 of 750 |  |  |
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Posted 4 years ago
jenre
(22 items)
I bought this vintage/antique ring off ebay. It was advertised as Victorian. I think perhaps it's art deco. I'm interested to learn anything you know about this type of ring.
I love the color change qualities of alexandrite.
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This looks like a lab grown color change sapphire, often sold as alexandrite or synthetic alexandrite. If you have a gem tester, it should test as corundum. If, like most of us, you do not, the way to know is to observe it under different lighting conditions.
In general mixed lighting these will appear some shade of purple with glints of other colors. Under incandescent light (hard to find these days) they look hot pink. They show more of the blue in sunlight; under certain fluorescents they are a vivid peacock blue, although this can be difficult to capture in photos. Most striking of all is how they look in the dark under UV light: they become red & green, more like actual alexandrite.
I have never seen one of these I could reliably date earlier than the 1940s. You find them a lot in Egyptian jewelry made for tourists & sometimes these pieces have a date letter on them. The stone seems to have been hot when new on the market & to have had another wave of popularity in the 1970s. Today, if you show one to a jeweler or dealer in vintage jewelry, most will not know what it is.
They are not considered very valuable, but you can't deny their bling factor.