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Antique Rings for My Vintage Girlies
23
items I've been quietly saving antique rings on Etsy for years and never quite acted on any of them, so this is that folder, finally sorted out. It turned out to be all one taste, which I only really noticed once I lined them up: small stones rather than b...
Sections
3
Little Treats · Budget Finds
Worth Saving For · Mid-Range
The Dream Rings
Little Treats · Budget Finds
The ones you can buy on a Tuesday without having a conversation with yourself about it — everything here is under about €70. At this price you're buying the shape rather than the materials: silver or gold plating, and stones that stand in for the rea...
My pick of this section, and it isn't close. A tiny green peridot bezel-set into a signet face with a star engraved beside it — and unlike nearly everything else at this price, the stone is a real gemstone and the gold is vermeil over sterling rather...
Natural Peridot Star Ring 14K Gold Vermeil, Dainty Signet Gold Stacking Ring
The cheapest thing on this list and one of my favourites, because it isn't pretending to be anything else. A domed signet you send your own emblem for — family crest, monogram, whatever you want raised on the face. Signets are having a moment, and a ...
18K Gold Plated Crest Ring - Customizable
An oval shield plaque with three stones set into filigree, milgrain running all the way round the edge. This is a dinner ring — made to be looked at — and of everything here it's the one that most convincingly passes for a period piece. Two practical...
Art Deco Three Stone Round Moissanite Engagement Ring White Gold
A marquise face with hand-engraved flowers across it — a Victorian idea at a price no Victorian would recognise. It looks considerably more expensive than it is, which is the entire point of this section. Worth knowing before you click: the price you...
Vintage Floral Ring, 14K Gold
Deco geometry done properly: a round centre with two blue baguettes cutting in from either side, which is a far more interesting shape than a solitaire and reads much older than it is. The blue stands in for sapphire and the listing says so plainly, ...
Antique Art Deco Ring For Women,Sapphire Baguette & Old European Cut
A slim band with milgrain down both edges and filigree cut into the sides — a lot of detail for fifty dollars. Bands like this are the most wearable thing in any antique-style collection, because they slide under everything else you own. Moissanite r...
Antique Art Deco Wedding Band
A proper cluster — centre stone ringed by smaller ones on a scalloped gallery, which is the shape that keeps reappearing in my saved folder. It's a gold finish over silver, so treat it as a beautiful thing for a season rather than forever. The moissa...
Vintage Antique Edwardian to Art Deco Style Round Cut Moissanite Engagement Cluster Ring 14K Yellow Gold Finish 925 Silver
A daisy cluster is the most Edwardian shape there is — round centre, petals of stone around it, scalloped gallery underneath — and this is the cheapest route into that look I've found anywhere. Moissanite and CZ rather than diamond, and the price sho...
Antique Daisy Cluster Engagement Ring
Open scrollwork with three clear stones set into it — Victorian revival rather than Victorian, made in the nineties, and I like it more for being honest about that. This is a real secondhand piece rather than a made-to-order one, so it comes exactly ...
Vintage Victorian Style Quartz Ring Size
Worth Saving For · Mid-Range
The step up in this section isn't the metal — it's the scale and the work. These are bigger, more elaborate rings: full daisy clusters, split shanks, pierced filigree galleries, a marquise you can spot across a room. Almost all of them are made to or...
My favourite in this section. It's a proper Edwardian daisy cluster and it is big — the face is two centimetres across, so it wears like a cocktail ring rather than a stacker. The opal is cultured rather than mined and the petals are CZ, both of whic...
Edwardian Style Opal Daisy Cluster Ring
The biggest stone in the section and the one people will notice — two and a half carats of marquise sitting in a milgrain halo, long and pointed down the length of the finger. Moissanite is a real gemstone rather than a lookalike: harder than almost ...
Marquise Cut Moissanite Engagement Ring
The Portuguese cut is the interesting thing here — dozens of tiny concave facets instead of the usual brilliant pattern, so it throws light out in small scattered flashes rather than one big one. In blue it looks like nothing else on this list. Moiss...
Vintage Blue Portuguese Cut Diamond Engagement Ring
Openwork filigree is the detail that makes Edwardian rings look like lace — the metal is pierced through rather than solid, so light passes along the sides of the setting instead of stopping at it. This is the quietest thing in the section and the ea...
Filigree Vintage Style Wedding Ring
A red centre ringed with small round pearls, which is a very Victorian idea — they loved a coloured stone with pearls set around it, and almost nobody makes this shape now. It photographs beautifully. The price shown is the silver version with a red ...
Victorian Red Garnet Ring, Pearl Halo Handmade Ring
An Asscher cut is the most Deco shape there is — stepped, square, all straight lines and depth rather than surface sparkle — and this one sits in a cluster that makes the whole ring look like something from 1925. Sterling silver with a stone standing...
Art Deco Sparkling Diamond Edwardian Ring
A split shank is where the band divides in two as it reaches the setting, and it makes the centre look like it's floating — a nice piece of design and rarely seen this cheap. Two-tone plating over silver, so expect the gold to soften with wear. The c...
Art Deco Edwardian Cluster Ring Vintage Diamond Daisy Cluster Ring Wedding Ring Cluster Halo Ring Split Shank Ring 14K Two Tone Gold Plated
The Dream Rings
The ones I look at more often than I'd like to admit. Most of these are genuinely old — two carry proper hallmarks and one of them is stamped London, 1847 — which means one ring, in one size, gone when it's gone. Old cuts don't flash the way modern s...
The most extraordinary thing on this entire list. A pansy worked in rose-cut diamonds — pansy from the French pensée, meaning thought, which is exactly why the Victorians used it for remembrance — on a band that reads IN MEMORY OF, hallmarked London ...
Antique Victorian era mourning ring with pansy motif in diamonds and 18ct gold
Fifteen carat gold is the giveaway — Britain only used that standard between 1854 and 1932, so the metal alone dates the ring before you've even looked at the marks. A deep garnet ringed with seed pearls, with scrollwork running down the shoulders. T...
Victorian 15ct Gold Garnet & Pearl Ring
Low, wide and quiet — this is a cluster that sits flat against the finger rather than standing up off it, eight sapphires and two diamonds with leaves engraved down the shoulders. Edwardian rings often look like this: built to be worn constantly rath...
18k Gold Antique Sapphire and Diamond Cluster Ring Band
A pearl between two turquoises, each one sunk into a little engraved star — star settings are a Victorian signature and they're the detail I'd buy this for. Turquoise and pearl together was a language back then: forget-me-not blue for remembrance, pe...
Victorian 10k Ring with Pearl and Turquoise Stones
A rose and a forget-me-not, worked in enamel — and in the Victorian language of flowers that pairing means love and don't forget me, which is about as direct as jewellery has ever been. It's tiny, and the enamel runs down the sides as well as across ...
Antique French sentimental ring, enamel ring, rose and forget me not
A pavé heart with pierced ornate shoulders, properly hallmarked 9ct gold from a seller in Scotland. This is the most affordable way into this section and much the most wearable — light, under two grams, and they'll resize it for you. It's straightfor...
Vintage 9ct Yellow Gold Ornate Love Heart Crystal Cluster Ring
The one in this section that isn't old, and it's here deliberately. Everything above it comes in a single fixed size and disappears when it sells; this is the same daisy-cluster idea made to order in whatever size you actually need, with a lab-grown ...
Antique Old Mine Cut Diamond Daisy Cluster Ring 14K Gold