The ring in three-quarter view on marble: the amethyst in the yellow gold bezel above the openwork silver case

Collection Rinascimento·Anello·Florentine mesh work

Rinascimento ring with 29-carat amethyst, openwork mesh silver, and yellow gold bezel

Name: Rinascimento ring with 29-carat amethyst, openwork mesh silver, and yellow gold bezel
Brand: Anna Gioielli
SKU: A802Fam
Price: 1900.0 EUR
Availability: InStock

Twenty-nine carats of natural amethyst, held by a tall, plain yellow gold setting.

€1.900,00 A802Fam

Drawn and built by hand at the bench, in Tosi.

At the center there is a single stone, and it takes up the whole top of the ring: a rectangular amethyst with cut corners, step-cut, laid crosswise along the band. It is held by a yellow gold setting bent up from sheet, with a tall satin wall and a polished edge on top. Below the setting the case is silver and it is not solid: it is pierced in a mesh, one window after another on all four sides, and in the silver around the windows a leaf pattern is engraved with the burin. The outline of the case repeats the cut corners of the stone. The band is wide and flat at the shoulders and thins as it goes down, and inside the silver stays smooth.

The amethyst is natural and weighs twenty-nine carats, that is five grams eighty of stone alone: it is the amethyst that dictates the measurements of everything else, because a setting like this is built around a gem that already exists, not the other way round. The eighteen carat gold weighs four grams thirty and is all there, in the setting; the case, the piercing, the leaves and the band are silver at nine hundred and twenty-five thousandths. There are no diamonds: the light is made by the steps of the cut, which do not multiply the sparkle but show the color all at once.

The material

Weights and carats as the workshop declares them.

Silver 925‰

4,30 gramsYellow gold 18kt 750‰

29 carats Amethyst · step-cut octagon

Metals: Silver 925‰ and yellow gold 18kt 750‰
Style: Florentine mesh work
Technique: Made entirely by hand: the silver case pierced in a mesh and engraved with the burin, the yellow gold setting bent up from sheet and mounted over it, the amethyst closed in by pushing the edge of the gold cold onto the stone.

The stones

Amethyst

Single, at the center, in the yellow gold setting

Cut: Step-cut octagon
Carats: ct 29
Note: Natural

The stone seen from the front: the step cut and the cut corners inside the gold rim

Three-quarter view with the band: the net openwork runs around all the sides of the case

The amethyst foreshortened: the thickness of the gold slab that holds it is visible

The piece from above: the outline of the case repeats the cut corners of the stone

Studio shot on a grey background: the leaves in burin engraving around the windows of the openwork

The piece mounted on the band: the shoulder widens to take up the case

Close-up: the satin-finished wall of the gold and the leaf design engraved in the silver

Close view from above: the purple of the stone against the white of the silver

The workshop drawing of the ring: plan, front view and side, with the stone and the bezel in colour

The model next to a twin piece with a colourless stone, where the openwork shows through the gem

How it is made

The words of the trade, one by one, explained to those who do not know them.

Openwork: The metal is drilled and then cut out from the inside with a very fine saw, until the solid sheet becomes a drawing of voids. It is a technique that allows no second attempt: what is taken away does not come back.
Mesh work: The piercing does not make a single hole: it makes a regular net, and every link has to carry the weight of the others. Getting one cut wrong means weakening the whole net.
Burin engraving: The burin is a goldsmith's small chisel pushed by hand. It does not scratch: it lifts a shaving of metal and leaves a clean groove that picks up the light. It is the mark that for five centuries has distinguished the Florentine goldsmithing school.
Octagon cut: A step cut, with long parallel facets instead of the points of a brilliant. It does not multiply the light: it shows it all at once, and that is why it is used on colored stones, where the color is the subject.
Gold and silver on the same piece: Silver melts at a lower temperature than gold and oxidizes quickly under the flame. Setting the two metals on the same piece means heating just enough for the solder to take without sinking the silver, and cleaning the joint before the black of the flame is sealed in under the gold.
Amethyst: Amethyst is purple quartz, and the purple does not come from a pigment: it comes from a few atoms of iron that ended up in the lattice in place of silicon and were then struck by the natural radiation of the rock. That is why the color is almost never laid on evenly — it arranges itself in zones and bands, deeper on one side and paler on the other — and orienting the stone properly on the lap is exactly what spreads it out. It is as hard as citrine, seventh degree, and it is worn every day with no care against scratches; but that purple is the most delicate thing it has. A strong, continuous light fades it, and heat wipes it out altogether: an amethyst heated enough turns yellow, and that is how a good part of the citrine on the market is born. Purple once lost does not come back.

I don't look at what others are doing: I would rather create in my own style. That is what makes our jewelry recognizable.
Fabio Gori — Anna Gioielli, Tosi

Made for you

Every ring is made to the size of the person who will wear it: we settle it together before work begins.

The goldsmith's workshop is also the place where made-to-measure jewellery is created and family pieces are restored: if you have an idea, or something you want brought back to how it was, that is where it starts.

Ask for a made-to-measure piece

Made by

Anna Gioielli

A goldsmith's workshop in Tosi, on the slopes of the Pratomagno: Anna opened it in 1988, her sons Fabio and Francesco carry it on. Piercing, repoussé, chasing and burin engraving — the Florentine school, with the workshop in full view of the shop.

All the creations by Anna Gioielli