Antique Rose Cut Diamond Ring 18k Chinese
1900s Straits Chinese gold ring set with a 1.6ct rose cut diamond in 18k.
This is a hand cut, rose cut diamond, a sheaf of diamond thinner than later day rose cut diamonds which reveal more sophisticated cutting techniques.
All through the 19th century, these type of diamonds came from India, travelling from the business of the East India Company to patrons all over the world, to Victorian England, and to English ports like Singapore and around this region. Much of Georgian rose cut diamonds came from the same route/place as this diamond.
These early type diamonds tended to be very white, glass-like from fewer cuts, and very fiery, yet often bearing feather or other inclusions of an earth-mined diamond, like in this ring.
Heirloom diamond rings were made with such early diamonds; as long as the stones were fiery and possess a bigger surface area, people cared less about their natural inclusions.
To make the best of early diamonds, many were made into rings with foiled backs or closed back, in order to wear a diamond more brilliantly than what the naked stone will show.
These early rose cut diamonds are different from subsequent rose cut diamonds as the 20th century progressed, the latter which though clean, may not be as white and/or available beyond one-carat sizes.
It is rare to come across such an early big size rose cut diamond in a solitaire ring.
Today we collect these diamonds and the jewellery they appear in for very personal reasons.
Perhaps there is a soulful quality to remember diamonds as a stone, and, in this particular rose cut, as the world’s oldest type of diamond, even older than the mine cut diamond.
The diamond’s face measures 10.3mm by 8.4mm. It is white and very fiery, but please bear in mind that this is an antique diamond which will not map to the modern 4Cs of diamond quality.
The diamond is set in a manner with its prong work and gold band uncannily like Georgian and early Victorian rings. This is one of those few old rings from ‘the colonies’, unmarked, authentically old.
We will size this ring accordingly after your purchase.