Bloodstone Ring. Bloodstone is a darkish green Chalcedony flecked with brown Jasper. Chalcedony belongs to the Quartz group of crystals; Bloodstone, technically called Heliotrope, is one of a number of much-appreciated Chalcedony gemstones, others, for example, being Onyx and Carnelian, Moss Agate and Chrysoprase. Bloodstone probably reached a popularity peak in Victorian England when it was commonly used in cameos and intaglios, and in one of the two Chalcedony gemstones always featured in the “Spinner”, the bauble a gentleman hung from the watch fob chain, Bloodstone on one side of the swivel, Carnelian on the other.
The name “Chalcedony” has its origin in an Ancient Greek trading outpost of that name, now Kadikoy, a municipality of Istanbul situated on the Asian side of, and at the mouth of, the Bosporus.
The raw cost of the 6 grams of 9ct Gold in the above Bloodstone Ring, as of December 2024, constitutes over 40% of the above retail price before GST; then there is the labour in the handmaking, the cost of the Bloodstone gemstone, the professional setting of the gemstone, and, of course, “wastage”, the perpetual  problem for goldsmiths at their workbenches where always a certain amount of the precious and costly Gold metal will simply disappear in the process of manufacture. And then there is the matter of “profit”, without which there is scarcely any point going to the bother.