Kashmir sapphire and diamond cluster ring. Centrally set with a cushion shape old cut natural unenhanced Kashmir sapphire in an open back millegrain and rubover setting with an approximate weight of 1.20 carats, encircled by a single row of ten round old cut diamonds in open back rubover and grain settings with a combined approximate weight of 1.00 carats, to an elegant coronet cluster featuring scalloped edging, an intricate openwork gallery and fancy open backholing, leading to raised square shoulders with chenier detail and flowing down to a solid shank. Tested 18 carat white gold, maker's mark 'EF', circa 1930, Austrian, accompanied by Gemmological Certification Services report #5777-7914, SSEF report #137021.
This ring was assayed in Vienna, W is the assay letter for Vienna.

Kashmir sapphires are most famous for their colour which is unlike any other sapphire. It is described as an intense cornflower or cobalt blue with a fine velvety, milky softness. In 1881 a landslide exposed a remote snow-covered area in the Zanskar mountain range of the north-western Himalayas, Kashmir. The physical mining of these sapphires was incredibly difficult due to the harsh climate combined with the mountainous landscape. Within just six years, the old Kashmir sapphire mine was exhausted. Incredibly, all of the fine Kashmir sapphires in existence were mined between 1881 and 1887. Even today, these stones remain the exemplar by which other sapphires are compared. To own a fine natural unenhanced Kashmir sapphire is to have a truly astonishing gemstone of immense rarity.

This is in excellent condition.