About this lot

Description

A pair of antique diamond and synthetic ruby earpendants, each with an oval cut Verneuil synthetic ruby, probably antique, in a double border of old round and old cushion cut diamonds, beneath an articulated suspension with a collet set old cut diamond and slightly later hooks with a stylised trefoil and leaf form set with more old round and similar diamonds, length 5.1cm
Other Notes: The French chemist, Auguste Victor Louis Verneuil (1856-1913), became professor of applied chemistry at the Museum of Natural History in Paris in 1892, around the time that he was exploring and developing a method of making synthetic corundum - that is, ruby and sapphire. Synthetic gemstones are chemically exactly the same as those produced naturally in the earth's crust, but have some physical differences, usually only observable with magnification, due to the crystals having formed under lab conditions and in a very short time compared to the natural stones. Rubies and sapphires often have observable colour banding, which in natural stones is always straight, with angles - if any are part of the stone - at 120 degrees. Verneuil's flame fusion method of growing the crystals causes any colour banding to be curved. He began this work in the mid 1880s, specifically with rubies, depositing his sealed notes in 1891 and 1892 at the Paris Academy of Science, but not going public with the method until 1902, and following up with commercially viable sapphires in 1910. Synthetic sapphires and rubies are not as old as natural ones, but are exactly as hard and durable, they cut and polish the same, have the same reflective and refractive properties, the same lustre, and the best arguably have colour and beauty comparable with the best natural stones.

Back to lot listings