Victorian Garnet 4-Piece Puzzle Ring

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Victorian Garnet 4-Piece Puzzle Ring

$500.00

Description

DATE: Victorian, c.1900

A cool antique puzzle ring in sterling silver set with seven almandine garnet cabochons. The four bands come apart (easily enough) and unless you have innate supernatural powers of spacial awareness - or past experience - it will probably take around 20 minutes to put it back together again. Dating from the late Victorian period, circa 1900.

Puzzle rings, in varying forms, have been around for centuries, probably as an evolution of the gimmel ring. One legend has it that they originate from Turkey, where a the ring would be given by the husband as a wedding ring, since if the wife were to remove it (presumably to commit adultery) the bands would come apart, and she would by unable to reassemble them before its absence would be noted. In reality it's pretty easy to take it off without it falling apart...

STONES

Almandine Garnet

MEASUREMENTS

Head: 14.6 x 10.9mm

Width of all bands together: 5.1mm

Width of individual bands: 1.3mm

WEIGHT

4.4g

MARKS

No marks present, tests as sterling silver

CONDITION

Very good