Kashmir sapphire and diamond ring. Centrally set with a rectangular emerald-cut natural unenhanced Kashmir sapphire in an open back claw setting with an approximate weight of 2.12 carats, further set with six tapered rectangular baguette cut diamonds in open back rubover settings with an approximate combined weight of 0.70 carats, to a geometric flanked solitaire design featuring curving split corner claws, a structured linear pierced gallery and square open backholing flanked by trumpeting openwork shoulders leading down to a solid tapered D-shape shank. Marked platinum, circa 1935, accompanied by Swiss Gemmological Institute (SSEF) report #123701.

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 ring is in excellent condition.