Victorian Citrine Ring

This early 19th century ring centres on a warm foil backed citrine, its softly faceted surface glowing with rich shades of honey, amber and smoky autumn gold. Beneath the stone, the traditional foil backing catches and returns the light, lending the citrine a wonderful sense of depth and an almost candlelit glow.

The stone rests within an elaborately worked setting, surrounded by scrolling floral decoration that continues into beautifully foliate engraved shoulders. Nature was an important source of inspiration for jewellery during the 19th century, with flowers and foliage becoming particularly fashionable during the Romantic period. Here, those details seem almost to curl around the gemstone like fallen leaves gathered around a final ember of summer.

There is something irresistibly autumnal about this jewel, its golden brown citrine recalling woodland leaves turning beneath an October sun, while flashes of light appear from within the stone like the glow of a fire on a darkening evening. One can imagine it worn almost two centuries ago, catching the last warmth of the afternoon on a country walk before glimmering beneath candlelight later that night. This is a ring that seems to hold the warmth of the season within it, a tiny fragment of autumn from another age preserved in gold.
 

“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness...”

~ John Keats