It's a 18k gold buttercup setting. The ruby came lose while I was washing. That ring has seen two World Wars and survived (Finland, so women were very much involved in the wars) and I broke it! I don't understand what held the ruby in place, there are no visible notch marks on the prongs, they are so worn down. If they make new nothes to the old prongs, the original ruby will be to small. I'm so scared this ring can't be saved. Skip to the end for the question!
This is why the ring is important. My great grandmother is someone I respect so much. Her brothers all received higher education and had careers in government and she fought to be able to have the same opportunity for education and managed to persuade her father to allow that (rare in the 19th century). Then, married (against her family's wishes) a political dissident, when Finland was still ultimately governed by czarist Russia, though there was a Finnish government and parliament. She hid political fugitives (independence proponents) in her new home. She was part of the effort that gave women the right to vote in 1906!
She had to cut out her family of origin and never spoke about them again, due to their opposing political opinions. We found large picture portraits of those family members hid in the back of unusually shaped linen closets (larger in the back, may have been hiding places for fugitives? in addition to a hidden room in the basement def. for hiding, there were also wall spaces in the attic. I never knew about the hidden spaces, my mom knew). The house was also named after her, it was known as "the curtain house" (people came to her for special occasion table cloths and curtains).
And then she survived the two world wars. In the first war her family of origin and husband fought on opposite sides. It resulted in Finland's independence. She lost her brother, but wasn't allowed to grieve or speak about him (I now have his portrait on the wall, she had hidden written notes behind or in the picture frames with information about the person(s) in the portrait(s)). The war was incredibly bloody, brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor (the Reds wanted something similar to socialism, Whites a conservative monarchy, we ended up as a republic with social democracy). Thankfully, both her husband and oldest son survived the WWII (against Russia) but they were incredibly traumatised. "The curtain house" was the gathering place for war veterans. When veterans came over, all women and children were told to leave. Then the vodka came out and crying started. Group therapy, I guess.
My mother's mother died when she was five, so my great grandmother in her advanced age raised my mother. She is the only mother my mother remembers. When my mother married my father she wore the ruby ring and her birth mothers both rings until recently when her joints made it impossible to wear them anymore. Now I have them, though they are too big for me to wear on my ring finger.
Thank you for letting me drop the history of the ruby ring here. I already feel a bit better!
Opinions needed: The setting still has visible incriptions and maker's marks and looks good. Would it ruin the history, if I replaced the ruby with one that fits the setting? The original ruby is cut in a choppy way but is incredibly vividly red.
This is why the ring is important. My great grandmother is someone I respect so much. Her brothers all received higher education and had careers in government and she fought to be able to have the same opportunity for education and managed to persuade her father to allow that (rare in the 19th century). Then, married (against her family's wishes) a political dissident, when Finland was still ultimately governed by czarist Russia, though there was a Finnish government and parliament. She hid political fugitives (independence proponents) in her new home. She was part of the effort that gave women the right to vote in 1906!
She had to cut out her family of origin and never spoke about them again, due to their opposing political opinions. We found large picture portraits of those family members hid in the back of unusually shaped linen closets (larger in the back, may have been hiding places for fugitives? in addition to a hidden room in the basement def. for hiding, there were also wall spaces in the attic. I never knew about the hidden spaces, my mom knew). The house was also named after her, it was known as "the curtain house" (people came to her for special occasion table cloths and curtains).
And then she survived the two world wars. In the first war her family of origin and husband fought on opposite sides. It resulted in Finland's independence. She lost her brother, but wasn't allowed to grieve or speak about him (I now have his portrait on the wall, she had hidden written notes behind or in the picture frames with information about the person(s) in the portrait(s)). The war was incredibly bloody, brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor (the Reds wanted something similar to socialism, Whites a conservative monarchy, we ended up as a republic with social democracy). Thankfully, both her husband and oldest son survived the WWII (against Russia) but they were incredibly traumatised. "The curtain house" was the gathering place for war veterans. When veterans came over, all women and children were told to leave. Then the vodka came out and crying started. Group therapy, I guess.
My mother's mother died when she was five, so my great grandmother in her advanced age raised my mother. She is the only mother my mother remembers. When my mother married my father she wore the ruby ring and her birth mothers both rings until recently when her joints made it impossible to wear them anymore. Now I have them, though they are too big for me to wear on my ring finger.
Thank you for letting me drop the history of the ruby ring here. I already feel a bit better!
Opinions needed: The setting still has visible incriptions and maker's marks and looks good. Would it ruin the history, if I replaced the ruby with one that fits the setting? The original ruby is cut in a choppy way but is incredibly vividly red.
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