Rare Colour Change Alexandrite & Diamond Ring

A extremely rare and captivating find; this antique natural Alexandrite and Diamond five stone ring dates to the late 19th century and displays a remarkably strong colour change from a dusky pink purple to soft velvet forest green. Astonishing! A fascinating and scarce novelty at the time, the color-change variety of Chrysoberyl was first discovered on April 17, 1834 in Russia’s Ural Mountains by the Finnish mineralogist Nils Gustaf Nordenskiold of the St. Petersburg Science Academy. He was amazed that at night, under candle light, the stone changed its color from an emerald green to a reddish purple. He named the newly discovered stone Alexandrite, in honor of Tsarevich Alexander (later Tsar Alexander II, ruled 1855-1881), who was turning 16 on the day of the discovery.

Alexandrite was a very rare stone even in the 1800s. Russian 19th century novelist Nicholas Leskov writes the following about the Alexandrite, “the mines from which the best Alexandrites were mined got flooded by a river therefore Alexandrite can be rarely found among Russian jewellers, for foreign jewellers and gem cutters, they have only heard about it.”

The beautiful Alexandrites are accented by exquisite and fine old hand cut Diamonds which had been plundered from some older jewel as they date to the 18th century (or perhaps even earlier) in cutting style being shaped similar to the Perruzzi cuts seen at this time with large high facets. 

The setting is all of 18ct yellow Gold and crafted with pretty scrollwork to the shoulders and a fine delicacy to the bezels reminiscent of sepals adding to the naturalesque beauty of the whole. The ring size is an 'L and a half' or '5.75' but we can alter a little to suit.