Silver Spoon Pendant, handmade in Kathmandu in the late 1970s. No Silver marks/stamps, but Silver content higher than Sterling/925; fifty years ago in Kathmandu most Silver jewellery was handcrafted in Silver of at least 95% purity, simply because the higher Silver content made the metal just that little bit more malleable.
Note the classic Victorian English styling of the top gemstone setting, with its three-prong shoulder and the setting surround of wirework and granulations; this late Victorian style was much used in Kathmandu in that time, in particular in rings.
The cabochon opaque Ruby is a Mysore Ruby, from the Ruby mines near that city in southwest India, in Karnataka state, of typical purplish colour. The above gemstone is a genuine Ruby. Some cabochon Ruby from these mines can be of high quality, with deep luscious purple colour, and sometimes cut in such a way as to bring out a striking six-point asterism, or “star”, that will move across the surface of the gemstone depending on the direction of the light source.