Saturday, July 29, 2006

Antique Heirloom


I mentioned on a previous post how Chris' mom gave me a ring. Before leaving France to be here for the wedding, I asked Chris to ask his mom if she had anything old in her jewelry box that I could borrow to wear on my wedding day.

She brought a small box of trinkettes..each piece different from the other..a religious medal, a brouch, a pin and a ring. The ring was the nicest thing in there and because I have small fingers it fit my ring finger on the right hand. As u can see on the photo, it has 3 stones in the middle and a circle of tiny pearls all around. It was missing one of the pearls but I didn't mind. It really wasn't noticable and besides it was about wearing it on my wedding day as part of a tradition. I was just glad I had something from Chris' side of the family to wear on my wedding day.

The day after the wedding I made sure to put the ring back in a small box to return it to my motherinlaw as soon as possible. I felt bad because in the wearing, it lost 2 more of the tiny pearls. She looked at me surprised when I gave it back, she said that I must have misunderstood. The ring was for me to keep! I was so surprised. Had I known that I would never have chosen the ring. She was adamant and then went on to tell me that it was her great grandmothers ring! Also the ring was over 150 yrs old!!! OH Lordy!! I was so touched that she would give me something so precious.

After they left Canada, we took it to our jeweler..the same who made our wedding rings. She took one look at the ring under her microscope and said WOW.. this is a nice antique ring. She rarely saw rose cut diamonds aswell. I didn't know what the stones in the middle were. She explained that they were indeed diamonds but they were what they called ROSE CUT because it was BEFORE they started cutting diamonds the way they do now with precise symmetrical cuts that make them sparkle more...She said we had a nice piece here , very precious in terms of it's history and workmanship. She also said she would be able to replace the pearls and clean it up some.

As you can see, she did a great job. Replaced the tiny pearls..which was not easy, she had to find some to match. She also reglued the existing ones so they wouldn't just pop off and polished the gold. I was also told to only wear it on special occasions. It is a VERY old ring after all lol. So we took this pic to send it to Chris' mom so she can see that I got it repaired. I think she will be pleased.

4 comments:

The Witch Doctor said...

It's absolutely beautiful Moon... I think that she'll be happy ;)

Anna said...

It really is a very lovely piece of jewelry Monette and the history behind it makes it that much more wonderful.

She chose the perfect person to hand it down to. Your jeweler did a great job restoring it and your mother-in-law is going to be very pleased with the care you given it.

It looks beautiful on you too, you're going to get many compliments on it when you do wear it.

*hugs*

JustSue said...

Just gorgeous! As I was reading your post I was hopeing that your jeweller would make sure the remaining pearls were secure. What a treasure...and what a fantastic indication that Chris' parents truly accept you as their new daughter.

Anonymous said...

That is a fabulous ring! I am sure Chris' mother will be honored that you took the time to have it repaired! Be sure to write the history of the ring along with the photograph!( can you tell I'm a scrapbooker...?
sorry for all the comments...but I'm a week behind!