Italian Retro oval “Buckle” ring, 18K gold with a Florentine finish, marked, c. 1940’s
ETTORE SOTTSASS Italy
WALTER DE MARIO (maker) Italy
Architecural ring 1964
18K gold
Signed: ES1, 750, Walter de Mario touch mark
Illustrated: Ettore Sottsass, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1994, p. 65
Exhibited: Ettore Sottsass, Centre Pompidou, Paris, April 27-September 5, 1994; Barbara Radice, Ettore Sottsass: A Critical Biography, New York, 1993 p. 144-145 (for related drawings)
Verdura ring, highly textured 18K gold set with teardrop shaped turquoises and a convex center of pave diamonds, marked
***Top quality gem blue zircons over 10 carats trade at a minimum price of $200 per carat and go up from there depending on the size of the stone and the quality of the color. Blue zircon, the most popular color, is produced by heat treatment of brown zircon. But not all brown zircon will turn blue when heated; only some zircon has the right physical structure for this to occur. This is why most blue zircon comes from certain sources in Cambodia or Burma. Blue zircon is a reasonably hard gem with a Mohs hardness of about 7 to 7.5. Blue zircon has some unique properties that make it very popular with gemstone aficionados. Not only does zircon have outstanding brilliance, but it also has very strong dispersion or fire, the tendency to split white light into the spectral colors. Zircon also has very pronounced birefringence or double refraction, with a wide variance between the two refractive indices. This can be often be observed with the naked eye when you look down through the table of a cut zircon; you will observe facet doubling that makes the facet edges appear blurred.
Provenance: Rupert Wace, London Size: 8 and 1/4
These impressive and rare dragon rings have been a feature of all the great ring collections, including the Harari, Guilhou, Spitzer, Franks, and Koch collections. They are known as ‘Naga rings’ because they are thought to represent the naga dragon which is thought to have sheltered the Buddha during a prolonged period of meditation. Chadour suggests that these rings were made for Royalty. The extravagant design certainly re-enforces the idea that they were made for lavish ceremonial use. Another example is in the British Museum.