Victorian Turquoise Oval Pavé Bombe Ring
Regular price $650.00
Victorian oval turquoise and gold pavé-set bombe shaped ring
This antique, oval-shaped, Persian turquoise ring is a stunning example of a 'bombe' ring, a popular 19th century term borrowed from the same French word 'bombé', meaning a rounded, spherical shape. This unusually elliptical-shaped bombe runs North-South on the finger, an echo of the navette shapes also in fashion in the later Victorian and later Edwardian eras.
The convex surface of this bombe is covered with a paving of turquoise cabochons, which is a beautiful technique for setting stones called 'pavé', also a French term meaning 'paved'. The base of the bombe and the band are a contrasting 14k yellow gold. It is our supposition that this base and band were a later addition to the ring--the bombe may have originally been on a lapel pin, or used as a button or cufflink and converted to a ring by a later jeweler.
Most bombes were round, which is one reason this ring is so outstanding and unique! The word 'bombe' itself was very evocative in the time of Queen Victoria and Kind Edward as 'Bombe Glacée' and 'La Bombe Surprise' were inordinately popular desserts on the menus of the well to do and featured layered spheres or hemispheres of ice cream and custard, frozen around a center of decadent fillings.
Turquoise was a stone made popular by Queen Victoria when she gave her bridesmaid's suites of turquoise jewelry upon her marriage to Prince Albert. Turquoise was a stone typically brought to the early fine jewelers of western Europe via trade routes with Turkey, despite the stone coming to the Turkish bazaars from Persia. Hence the name of this blue-green stone is a misnomer, being dubbed by jewelers of France to be 'la pierre Turquoise', the Turkish stone. The name remains a testament to this mistaken identity.
MATERIALS: 14K Yellow Gold, Natural turquoise.
CONDITION: EXCELLENT
US RING SIZE: 6 *
HALLMARKS: 14K
DIMENSIONS:
- Face: 1/2" High (12mm) x 5/16" Wide (5mm) x 5.5mm Deep
- Band: 2mm wide
*Can be re-sized.