Trying to identify the date of this ring

[GrifterforChristmas]

Hi,

I found this ring about 25-30 years ago when i was a young kid and was interested to find out something about it.

the hallmark is the Birmingham anchor and my understanding is that the age stamp is after this point? if not its the C at the beginning but i think that is the makers mark but im not entirely sure, any assistance in identifying the year mark would help solve a problem that has had me scratching my head for a few weeks now

 

[kefira]

You've probably looked at the Birmaingham Assay Office site, but here's a link in case you haven't. The confusing thing is that the shapes they show are of no help, as they are just for silver. They aren't clear whether they just mean the letter, or the anchor, too, which would be helpful. The last letter (I agree that one is probably the date letter, not the 'C') looks like it's a lowercase 'k' to me, but the script isn't clear, unfortunately. 1833, 1884, and 1909 all use a lowercase 'k' that look vaguely like yours, so that's not exactly conclusive! Can you take it to an antique jewelry shop to see what they say? Or an appraiser, but that's not free, of course. But, if they can tell you whether the rubies are natural or synthetic (assuming they are original to the piece), that might help you as well. Personally, I think it looks the most like the 1884 script, but that's just a guess. I hope others with more experience will chime in. Good luck!

 

[LibbyLA]

Here's a link that may help. http://www.britishhallmarkingcouncil.gov.uk/publications/hallmarks2.pdf

This has hallmarks for gold and silver.

ETA: At first, I thought the letter looked most like the k for 1909, but after looking at the k for 1884 blown up, I'm more inclined to think it may be 1884.



liz

 

[GrifterforChristmas]

Hi thanks for the responses.

I have come to a similar conclusion that its a lower case k and narrowed it down due to the list of letters from the Bham assay office with the sticky out bits on the left hand side of the character to 1825, 27, 33, 40 or 47 but didnt consider 1884.

i will take it to the local jewelers and ask their opinion, thanks for helping me to narrow it down to very few choices, if the jeweler can give a definitive answer i will let you know!

 

[GrifterforChristmas]

You've probably looked at the Birmaingham Assay Office site, but here's a link in case you haven't. The confusing thing is that the shapes they show are of no help, as they are just for silver. They aren't clear whether they just mean the letter, or the anchor, too, which would be helpful. The last letter (I agree that one is probably the date letter, not the 'C') looks like it's a lowercase 'k' to me, but the script isn't clear, unfortunately. 1833, 1884, and 1909 all use a lowercase 'k' that look vaguely like yours, so that's not exactly conclusive! Can you take it to an antique jewelry shop to see what they say? Or an appraiser, but that's not free, of course. But, if they can tell you whether the rubies are natural or synthetic (assuming they are original to the piece), that might help you as well. Personally, I think it looks the most like the 1884 script, but that's just a guess. I hope others with more experience will chime in. Good luck!

i would imagine the stones are authentic, i have had this ring for many years and would have thought that if anyone was going to replace the originals with synthetic stones, they would have got rid of some of those rather tired looking pearls too, not that i have any knowledge about jewelry apart from gold looks yellow and rubies look red

 

[kefira]

Yeah, I think the stones look original to the ring as well. But, if they happen to be synthetic rubies (the hot new thing back in the day), you'd be able to narrow down the date, since synthetics didn't show up on the market until around 1900, I think. It they are natural, then they are of no extra help.