Antique Silver-Topped 14K Gold Ring with 2 Carat Round Rose Cut Moissanite — Pre-1850 Mounting, Size 6

A sterling silver head rises from a yellow gold shank, its claws gripping a rose cut stone whose broad crown of triangular facets catches light the way the old jewelers intended: softly, in flashes, like candlelight moving across water. The mounting dates to circa 1850 or earlier. The stone at its heart is new — a colorless, eye-clean moissanite of approximately 2 carats — and the meeting of the two is the whole point of this ring.

Silver over gold was the signature construction of fine jewelry before platinum came into use. Silver was chosen for the head because it made white stones look whiter in the warm glow of candles and oil lamps; gold was kept for the shank because it sat warm against the skin and would not blacken the finger. Look closely at this mounting and you see the whole philosophy at work: a silver crown of claws, split shoulders set with a line of small white accent stones that lead the eye inward, and a plain gold band below. It is a design built to be seen across a dinner table, by flame.

The rose cut belongs to the same world. Developed in the sixteenth century and named for the way its facets open outward like petals from a single point, it was the dominant diamond cut for nearly three hundred years — flat-backed, domed, and made to glow rather than blaze. Choosing a rose cut for this mounting was not a stylistic flourish. It is the cut this setting was made to hold.

The moissanite carries a story of its own. The mineral was first identified in 1893 by the French chemist Henri Moissan, who found microscopic crystals of it in fragments of a meteorite from Canyon Diablo, Arizona. Natural moissanite is so rare that every gem-quality stone today is created in a laboratory — which means the center stone of this ring is, quite literally, a material first found in a fallen star, set into a mounting that was already old when Moissan made his discovery. For the bride who wants the presence of an antique two-carat rose cut, with a stone that is harder than any gem but diamond and brilliant enough to hold its own beside one, this is a rare way to have both.

Condition is consistent with honest age: the silver head shows the soft, darkened patina that collectors prize, and the gold shank wears its years with grace.

RING
Material: 14k yellow gold shank, sterling silver top
Measurements: 12.5 x 2 mm wide / 9.4 mm high off finger
Weight: 4.6 grams
Markings: none
Ring Size: 6
Period: 1850 or earlier

CENTER MOISSANITE
Quantity: 1
Measurements: 10.8 mm
Weight: 2 cts (estimated at 2 cts)
Cut: Round rose cut
Color: colorless
Clarity: eye clean

ACCENT DIAMONDS
Quantity: 14 
Measurements: 1.7-1.2 mm
Weight: 0.16 cts estimated weight
Cut: single cuts
Color: K/L
Clarity: VS2-SI2