Dutch gold antique ring from Amsterdam 17th Century

This time we present you a ring where, besides the country it was made, we even know the town it was made in. And to be more precise we think this ring was made in the year 1679. How do we know this? By the hallmarks. In many countries in Europe the guilds guaranteed the integrity of the concerned trades. They appointed assay-masters to control the objects made of precious metals checking if the right alloy was used. (Later the legislator adopted most of their rules in his laws, so in fact, today, we are still working according to the same principles.) It is by the hallmarks that we can "read" that the ring was made in Amsterdam in the Netherlands (Holland) in 1679. Would we have a bigger library most likely we would even be able to find the goldsmith who made the ring.

We do not know if there any symbolism to this ring. The type of ring is quite common for Holland in the 16th till even the 19th Century. It has nine little so called "spiders" on top and the shenk is made from six twisted wires, soldered next to each other and embellished with little gold flowers and diamonds that alternate from one side to the other.

When the ring was offered to us it was sort of broken at the bottom, straight through the Amsterdam hallmark (on the picture the mark with the three crosses). This placed us in a difficult position, what to do? If we repaired the ring as it should be, in the good old-fashioned way with a flame and solder, the hallmark would flood with the solder and big part of the proof of the origin and date of the ring would be lost forever. So we decided to repair the ring in a very modern way, that is with a laser beam. We were able to weld the ring on the outside to eachother and on the inside to. But we did not touch the place where the hallmark is. If you look closely you can still see the unwelded cleft going through the Amsterdam hallmark.

Antique jewelry object group: ring

Country of origin: Netherlands, Amsterdam

Style: Baroque - Baroque is an artistic style prevalent from the late 16th century to the early 18th century in Europe. It is most often defined as "the dominant style of art in Europe between the Mannerist and Rococo eras, a style characterized by dynamic movement, overt emotion and self-confident rhetoric".
See also: Baroque or more info on styles

Style specifics:

Period: ca. 1679
(events and facts in 1679)

Theme:

Material: 18K yellow gold
(more info on precious metals)

Technique: Filigree (formerly written filigrann or filigrane) is a delicate kind of jewel work made with twisted threads usually of gold and silver or stitching of the same curving motifs. It often suggests lace and French from 1660 to the late 19th century. It should not be confused with ajoure jewellery work; while both have many open areas, filigree involves threads being soldered together to form an object and ajoure involves holes being punched, drilled, or cut through an existing piece of metal. (from: Wikipedia)

Hallmarks: Dutch and Amsterdam hallmarks, from which we deciphered the ring to be made in 1679 (found in the book: "Goud- en zilvermerken van Voet" by L.B.Gans, ISBN 90-6890-363-2 geb.)
(more info on hallmarks)

Condition: reasonable good condition
(more info on our condition scale)

Dimensions: length of top 1.60 cm (0.63 inch)

Weight: 4.20 gram (2.70 dwt)

Ring size Continental: 61 & 19½ , Size US 9½ , Size UK: S½

Resizing: of course this ring be made to any size requiered but we would suggest when it has to be made smaller to make an inner ring to avoid damage to the hallmarks. Costs of this will be depending on the size requiered.
(more info on ring sizes)

Reference Nº: 10298-4335

Copyright photography: Adin, fine antique jewelry

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