Antique ‘En Tremblent’ Gold Brooch

At Richard Ogden Gold Bird Brooch ‘En Tremblent’ with turquoise stones and rubies

Oh I just had to share this brooch with you fine folks, as it is just such a sweet and beautifully made piece of jewellery, circa 1880, so a late Victorian piece.  The style is referred to as En Tremblent, which obviously is French and means to tremble.  The name comes from the gemstones and sections of the piece being set so that they have some beautiful movement to them.  As an example, in this brooch the bird is set on a gold spring, which makes it tremble when it is moved around.  The ruby in its beak is only fastened with a small bit of gold, so it gives an extra dimension of movement to the piece.  It is so well made, which was also pointed out by one of the most skilled antique style jewellery craftsmen that I know here in London – he if anyone would know what quality when it comes to antique pieces!

The back of the brooch, which is just about as beautiful as the front!

They started creating en tremblent jewellery in the late 18th century, as the movement of the gemstones so cleverly caught the light and attracted the eye.  They would mainly create floral sprays with the main flower en tremblent, to make it look like it was swaying in the wind.  We already know that these old cut diamonds were especially stunning in candle light, as the light would be reflected across the room in the most soft and romantic manner.

Richard Ogden Gold Bird Brooch En Tremblent with turquoise and rubies

So how would you style it, since brooches are making such a wonderful comeback?

Ruby and Diamond Rings

Oh I do hope things are well with you dear!  At my end it has been busy times indeed but all great fun.  The shop is gearing up for Christmas and the Christmas Catalogue has been taking up a lot of time lately but it looks so amazing now, yei!  We have a little helper in the shop at the moment, Suki, who is clearly taking her job very seriously:

Boss Lady

I was helping a customer the other day with choosing an engagement ring and it is always fun when someone goes for a different stone than a diamond.  I was showing them these two beauties:

Ruby and Diamond engagement rings at Richard Ogden

The left one is a Ruby and Diamond Cluster Ring in an Art Deco style, which I find is very popular at the moment.  The right one is a Ruby and Diamond Target Ring and just the most fabulous design – it gets a lot of attention from those who want something classic but still different.

Ruby and Diamond engagement ring at Richard Ogden

The ruby and diamond cluster ring is also referred to as a Halo Ring, where the diamonds surround the centre stone like that.  It is especially lovely when the guy has taken the girl’s birthstone into consideration (for those who are lucky enough to have a strong enough stone as their birthstone that is – my Amethyst for February sure wouldn’t make a great one as it is far too soft!)

The July-born ones are very lucky to have the Ruby as their stone – and the September Sapphire is another great one.  Emeralds in May are a bit softer and might not be the best choice, because if you accidentally hit it against something in the wrong place you might be looking at a mighty fine crack all across the stone.  However, as I think I have mentioned before, some people look after their jewellery very well and I know someone who has worn the soft aquamarine for 30 years without any damage to it!

Ruby and Diamond Target Ring, Engagement Ring, Richard Ogden

This Target Ring is so special and you won’t find another one in many places (except a sapphire one that we also have at the shop!) because they are made by this one craftsman who isn’t creating any more of them at the moment.

So there we are, I so love going to work and helping people find their dream jewellery – there are so many beautiful designs out there for us to enjoy!

Acrostic Jewellery – the Secret Language of Gemstones

Good morning my dear!  Today I am posting on a Saturday because of various IT challenges yesterday, but I am hoping that we should be all up and running now – thank you for your patience!

So yesterday I had a look at the most romantic style of jewellery in the antique shop: Acrostic Jewellery.  We have to jump back over a hundred years in time to understand this style of jewellery, so imagine that you are living in the Victorian times:

A gentleman wants to woo a woman, but the rules are very strict as to how the couple is allowed to spend time together.  Her parents must grant him permission to visit and the parents will of course be present when he sees their daughter.  People are able to express their feelings in letters, but there is always the risk of someone intercepting the correspondence, so you might not want to be too open writing down your feelings and innermost thoughts..!  The couple can attend dinner and parties and dance with each other, but only under the watchful eye of her parents – and eventually the two are able to spend some time together, but always in the company of a chaperone.  So these clever Victorians became experts in expressing their hearts’ desires using symbolic gestures, which is where Acrostic Jewellery comes in.

Dearest and Regards Jewellery from Moira Jewels at Richard Ogden

In Acrostic Jewellery gemstones were used to spell out words that expressed one’s feelings, often in rings, brooches and lockets.  The first letter of each gemstone would spell out a words, so in the photo above you can see two different words in the two lockets.

The locket to the left contains the following gemstones: Diamond, Emerald, Amethyst, Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire and Topaz – forming the word DEAREST.

The locket to the right contains: Ruby, Emerald, Garnet, Amethyst, Ruby, Diamond.  The word REGARD may not seem super romantic to us today, but it was often used in the sentences: “with my regards” or “I highly regard you”, and was a lovely word expressing a person’s feelings.

A few other words would be spelled out with the following gemstones:

Fluorite, Ruby, Indicolite, Emerald, Nephrite and Diamond

Amethyst, Diamond, Opal, Ruby, Emerald

Acrostic jewellery is believed to have its origins in France in the 18th century, where it is thought to have been invented by Empress Josephine and Marie Antoinette’s jeweller Jean-Baptiste Mellerio.  Popular French words would be Souvenir (remembrance) and Amitié (friendship). (1)

I absolutely love the idea of having a piece of jewellery that spells out a secret message like this and I suppose that my name would call for Indicolite, Iolite, Diamond and Amethyst.  Do you have a name that could be spelled out like this using gemstones?

Sources:

Jewellery Making Daily

A Burmese Ruby and Diamond Three Stone Ring

Happy Friday my lovely!  Oh I am always so glad that I picked Friday as one of my days to post, as it means that I can say those four words to you first thing!

So yesterday in the antique jewellery shop I was looking closer at our Ruby collection and suddenly realised that one of the ruby and diamond three stone rings in fact had a Burmese Ruby as its centre stone!  Now you might remember the previous post Ruby – the King of the Gemstones, where we learnt that a Burmese Ruby, also known as Pigeon’s Blood Ruby, is the most sought after colour in this gemstone, and I am so pleased that I can now show you what it looks like:

Burmese Ruby and Diamond Three Stone Ring at Richard Ogden, Burlington Arcade

While working in the shop I have noticed that three stone rings are quite a popular choice for engagement rings, and some say that they represent the couple’s past, present and future.  To some people the arrangement has a religious meaning, said to represent the Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.  When it comes to this design of three stone rings, you may also find that they are referred to as Trinity Rings or Trilogy Rings.

An angled view of the ring – I haven’t made any alterations to the picture, to give you the chance to really see the colour of the Ruby 

Ruby – the King of the Gemstones

So I learnt some very interesting facts about rubies on Monday, and just couldn’t wait to share them with you!  It all started with this beautiful ruby and diamond cluster ring from the 1930s…

1930’s Ruby and Diamond cluster ring

Ruby is the red variety of the mineral corundum.  Now, Sapphire is also of the mineral corundum and covers all colours except red.  This essentially means that rubies are red sapphires, although this is not quite true because a ruby will never be identified as a red sapphire – it has been classified as an individual gemstone (1) but you can see how closely related they are, with exactly the same properties, apart from the colour.

Sapphires in a rainbow of colours!  All colours apart from red are classified as Sapphires when it comes to the mineral corundum.  The red variety is our beautiful Ruby.

This close relationship between Ruby and Sapphire is very interesting, and also explains why these two gemstones are both such popular choices in engagement rings; with a hardness of 9.0 (on the Mohs scale, which we will look at later) they are second only to Diamonds, that have a hardness of 10.0.  It means that they will be very durable and not scratch or break easily – which is obviously very important when you wear your ring all the time, every day.

Diamond and ruby ring at Richard Ogden

However, the close relationship between rubies and sapphires have only been known to us since the beginning of the 19th century.  Before that people mistook red garnets and spinels for rubies all the time all around the world – except in Burma, where spinels were recognised as separate gemstones in as early as 1587.  The rest of the world stayed oblivious to this fact for hundreds of years – happily decorating their crown jewels with spinels and garnets, thinking that they were beautiful red rubies!  The most famous spinel that was once thought to be a ruby, is the Black Prince’s ruby; a 170ct red spinel adorning the Imperial State Crown of England in the British Crown Jewels! (2)

Antique diamond and ruby ring

There has been a bit of debate in the jewellery world when it comes to distinguishing between rubies and pink sapphires.  In the US a minimum intensity of colour must be met for the gemstone to be called a ruby – anything that falls short of that will be classified as a pink sapphire.  This is a bit difficult to decide on though, so the International Colored Gemstone Association and other trade organisations have adopted a broader definition for rubies, which includes their lighter shades as well, including pink. (3)  You can see a very good example of a pinkish ruby in the top photo above.

Snake necklace in gold with ruby eyes, a sapphire and diamonds – on Portobello Market

Ruby obtains its red colour from the presence of the element chromium in the corundum mineral, and the most sought after colour in rubies is a deep red colour, sometimes referred to as “Pigeon’s Blood Ruby” and “Burmese Ruby”.  Mogok in Burma (now Myanmar) produces the most valuable naturally coloured rubies but there are heavy restrictions on exports from the country  because of their human rights violations, and countries like the UK ban any exports from them.  Thailand used to be a great source of rubies, but their mines were exhausted in the 1980s.  Sri Lanka, India, Cambodia, Vietnam, Tanzania, and Mozambique are other important sources of rubies and other providers include Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikstan, Australia, and the US (1).

Ruby and diamond butterfly brooch at Richard Ogden, Burlington Arcade

This was a very brief look into this stunning gemstone, and something tells me that we will be coming back for so much more!

Sources:

(1) Minerals.net

(2) Gemstone.org

(3) Wikipedia – Ruby