Opulent Victorian Ring with Amethyst Cameo and Diamonds in Gold, c. 1870

An unknown beauty looks towards us with a melancholy expression. Her head is slightly tilted. She wears an antique-style tiara on her head, her hair is partly braided and partly falls loosely over her shoulders. In the past, cameos were usually cut from mussel shell or agate. However, in the second half of the 19th century, when there was a general enthusiasm for the jewellery of antiquity, other materials were sometimes used - very rarely even colorful gemstones, as in this ring, which has a cameo made of amethyst. Amethyst was already being cut into cameos in ancient Greek and Roman times, as we know from archaeological finds. At the beginning of the 19th century, for example, a farmer found an important ancient Roman cameo of Medusa made of amethyst at the foot of the Aventine Hill in Rome, which is now in the British Museum in London, see here. In the course of the 19th century, amethyst cameos became a special fashion that expressed the enthusiasm for antiquity of the time. Even Isabella of Spain gave the opera singer Adelina Patti a brooch with an amethyst gem framed by forty pearls after a performance in Madrid. Here, the cameo of the unknown beauty, who cannot be identified by any attribute, is transformed into a ring by many small, hand-applied prongs of high-carat gold. A total of 31 diamonds form a suitable frame for her. The ring is of exceptionally high quality. A wonderful piece that combines a love of antiquity with the contemporary sense of form of the Victorian era.

Estimate:£4,230.16

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