Need some help identifying the red stone in the ring. This is from Riga, Latvia at least 40 years ago and belongs to my grand-mother-in-law. I have some hints on what it could be but my sources have competing thoughts.
Looks like a Pyralspite ( PYRop-ALmandin-SPessartine - a garnet!)
Don't think it is glass course the ring looks really nice and these garnet were typical for european jewelery of the last century.
Think the source is India - the garnet from Austria/ Zillertal ( I visited the old mining area as a student for mineralogy - you can find hundreds of tiny garnets) was small but the same color - a very dark brownish red.
Garnet. We can only guess. If you really want to know, you have to have an in person examination at the very least. It could be burgundy colored glass based on Internet pics.
Sincere thanks for the help. I will have it looked at in person by a professional once I go visit my wife's family again in a few months. I have a note out to my mother-in-law to verify as well.
Looks very likely to by Pyrope Garnet or something close within the same garnet family. Enjoy your lovely heirloom pieces. Please do not let your local jeweller steam clean or put them in an ultrasonic or they might get damaged (might be okay but why take the risk on irreplaceable sentimental pieces).
Agreed, pyrope garnet or in the same family. They are very nice -- I like the earrings especially. Nice diamond ring too -- I had a similar one, probably the same era, that belonged to my great-aunt, then my grandmother, then mother, to me & I gave it to my niece when she graduated from college. These family pieces give us a great connection to people we never knew.