Grandmother's engagement ring

[merilenda]

Let me start by giving a brief bit of family history. Although I'm only 27, my dad was older when I was born, and he was the youngest in his family. That means that my grandmother was born in 1895. She immigrated to the US from Ireland when she was around 18 or so. She married my grandfather around 1918 if I remember correctly. I know that she died in 1948 when my dad was only 16. He was very close to her, and he talked about her often throughout his life.

I lost my dad last year, which has been really hard. He had had Alzheimer's, and in his dementia, he had misplaced certain things. One of the things we couldn't find after he died was my grandma's engagement ring. All I ever knew about it was that it was a ruby ring. Rubies had a lot of family significance because it was the birthstone of my grandma and my dad. My dad's aunt was named Ruby as well. Because of that, I always wanted to buy a ruby ring to wear in honor of my dad and grandma.

This will sound weird, but at some point after he died, I heard about people asking their deceased loved ones to help them find something that was lost. I wasn't sure that I bought into it really, but I thought it couldn't hurt. I talked to my dad all of the time anyway. Well, shortly after I asked my dad for help, my mom found the ring in their house (along with a couple of other older pieces of family jewelry). So I thought that was interesting anyway.

My mom said if I wanted to wear it, I could have it and get it resized. So I had the ring resized today. Unfortunately, I had to run to the jeweler after I got off work to get there before they closed. They were pretty busy, and I wasn't really able to ask for their thoughts on the ring. I was able to have it sized down to a 6.

The ring is 10k yellow gold. I have no idea how old the ring is, other than that I believe they were married around 1918. Don't know if the ring was new then or not. I love antique and vintage jewelry, but sadly, I'm not at all knowledgeable about it. I was hoping to get your thoughts on it!

I was very surprised, because I was thinking it would be bright red. Instead, it is a very pinky red. It's always hard to capture the exact color in pictures, but I did my best.

Thoughts?

Oh and also, I have a couple of other pieces (a locket and a gold bracelet) that I was going to take pictures of as well, but my camera died. I'll have to do that sometime soon and post them.

(The last picture is for comparison with my e-ring, which is an AVC 0.71 G SI1).

 

[stci]

OMG! What a gorgeous ruby!

Curious to know the size and clarity of it! Did you ask to your jeweler about those questions?

Just one little thing and I know it's matter of taste but I found the stone is setting a little too high. But believe me it's not dramatic! Your ring is simply adorable and certainly worth a lot of money today!

If you have more information about your beautiful stone, don't hesitate to tell us please and congratulations!

 

[merilenda]

Thank you, stci! I wish I had information about the stone, but I don't. I wasn't able to have the jeweler look at it today, but I hope to soon! I have another ring that needs some repair on the prongs, so maybe I'll bring it back in when I have the ring repaired. I just wanted to get it resized so I could start wearing it! It was too big for any of my fingers before.

 

[KaeKae]

Beautiful. Isn't it great to be able to wear a piece of your family history right there on your hand? I have my grandmother's ering and my other grandmother's diamond necklace. So precious. Enjoy it.

 

[Ninama]

Oooooohhhhhh... how wonderful! That ruby is fascinating and I'll be checking back for updates on it's stats! I recently got my Nana's wedding ring (my avatar pic) and love having an heirloom.

 

[artdecogirl]

Merilenda, the ring is lovely, I really like the color and how lucky to have found it!

 

[kelpie]

It's beautiful and such a sweet memento to have. When I got married recently my uncle gave me a pin of my great grandmother's and I really treasure it.

 

[JewelFreak]

That's so pretty & a wonderful memento of your grandmother for you to keep & cherish. Nice color. It's impossible to tell from photos what it is; could be a ruby, or it might be a spinel, which were often sold as and confused with rubies. (The Black Prince's "ruby" in the British crown jewels is actually a spinel.) Possibly a tourmaline but I doubt one would have survived wear so long without scratching or chipping. I'm a tad doubtful about a jeweler setting a genuine good-quality ruby in 9-ct gold. Please post what you find out -- whatever it turns out to be, I'm sure you'll get long pleasure from wearing a ring w/such a neat history. I love wearing my grandmother's stuff, brings her along with me.

--- Laurie

 

[Malta]

So nice

 

[pregcurious]

I love the classic setting and the story behind it.

 

[pkanawha]

It's a beautiful ring. And it's certainly priceless because it belonged to your grandma. I know you'll always treasure it, as would I.

The pinkish red stone is very interesting. You should know that synethic rubies (i.e. "real" but man made rubies, i.e. red corundum) were still pretty new back then. And they were as expensive or in some cases more expensive than natural rubies. Often they were set in very fine, expensive jewelry. Today synthetics are easy and cheap to make and they sell very inexpensively. It's possible that this stone is a synthetic (real, but man made) ruby. It seems very clear and in fact these man made stones are typically much more clear than the natural ones. On the other hand, synthetic rubies are usually bright, bright, stop sign red and this one is not. So it could be a light colored natural ruby. Or another type of natural stone that family lore turned into a ruby.

I can't wait to hear what your jeweler tells you. And by the way, that OMC diamond looks really nice. I'll bet your grandma & dad are smiling at this very moment!

 

[lindacat]

I agree with some of the others here; I don't think it looks like a ruby at all. Perhaps a spinel or even a pink sapphire or pink tourmaline, or as one person suggested, maybe a synthetic ruby. easy enough to find out - take to a good jeweler and have them do an appraisal, or at the very least, check the stone to see what it is for sure. I am betting it is not a ruby, though; sometimes family history gets a bit out of sync, too!