Vintage English Coral & Silver ring. By the late 1960s the chaos of the Great Leap Forward was well in the past, and, the Great Leader’s tendency towards revolution somewhat curbed, opportunities in trade were gradually expanding. What became in the mid 1970s a deluge of old jewellery items pouring into Shanghai for export to the west, was beginning. The oblong carved Coral used in the above Vintage English Silver ring dates back to the 1930s: of fine gem-quality deepish orange-red colour and very well-carved in a typically Chinese tightly organized floral motif, it is possibly of Chinese rather than Mediterranean origin, for it has two small natural inclusions, one at each end, of calcite, a natural inclusion often to be found in gem-quality Coral from the sea off Taiwan.
The construction of the Vintage English Silver ring, hallmarked London in the year 1970, is in three parts, all neatly joined and soldered together to create the pleasing whole: the ornately scrolled section comprising shoulders and the top on which the gemstone mount sits, is one segment of stamped Silver that has required annealing and working into its round profile; the handmade mount for the Coral gemstone; and the very sweetly formed band at the rear, also handcrafted, where the London hallmarks are located.