Antique Synthetic Ruby Question

[prettybowgirl]

Does anyone know about old synthetic rubies? (I also posted this under colored gems and just realized I should have posted it here maybe?)

I just bought an antique ring (1920-30''s) because it held a pair of stunning diamonds (hello earrings), but it also has a beautiful, bright chunky old mine cut 1.3ct (approx. by measurements) synthetic ruby that tests positive on the gem tester as a ruby (described as flame-fusion, medium dark, moderately strong red-purple or purple-red). If it''s worth it, I''m considering a re-set with a diamond halo, but wonder how much I should invest in setting a synthetic stone. Is it worth it? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 

[LGK]

I''d just set the ruby and enjoy. Synthetic antique corundum stones aren''t of any particular intrinsic value as far as I''m aware, but I don''t ever see them priced loose I have to admit. They tend to be mostly priced as the setting. Like, synthetic alexandrites are really common- they''ve been around since, god, the early 1900s at least if I remember right. So I see those all the time at work. And the price tends to be basically whatever the setting is worth... though, of course, people rarely think of that when they''re buying them- they just love the stone. They don''t usually realize that a 10mm synthetic alex in a 14K setting is $300 because that''s what the setting is worth- they just think about the stone usually, lol. But it is really the setting they''re usually paying for. While I haven''t seen nearly as many antique synthetic rubies as alexandrites, they''re all corundum if I remember right.

Nevertheless it wouldn''t stop me from putting such a stone into a really great setting and enjoying it. At all. I have some basically-worthless-but-gorgeous stones in fabulous settings. An old cut synthetic ruby in a great setting would be a knockout. Go for it!

Also, interestingly, a lot of those gorgeous geniune Deco settings that are laden with diamond melee and beautifully worked platinum, if they have sapphires as accent stones, the sapphires are usually synthetic. They didn''t think anything wrong with mixing diamonds with synthetic rubies, or sapphires back in that time period.

 

[prettybowgirl]

Thanks Kitten! That''s great advice and information -- I had no idea they made synthetic alexandrites so long ago. I''ve seen lots of sapphires and found two great synthetic rubies in the past six months, so I guess they''re out there too, but that was news to me. Clearly they had their own ideas back then -- if they weren''t finding perfect rubies or sapphires for their project, why not use synthetics!? Totally right on.