1960s Molten Gold Ring by George Weil
… it started me thinking about how silver and gold could be blasted by flames until it ran almost fluid, then controlled, built upon and fused again until it resulted in small sculptures with the texture and all the flame-like movement of this kind primal ordeal by fire. - Sam Kramer, late 1950s
The 1960s and '70s saw an explosion of imagination and experimentation in the jewellery world. Goldsmiths like Sam Kramer in the US, Andrew Grima in Britain, and Reinhold Reiling in Germany were exploring the limits of technique and design. John Donald, known for his striated cubes and nugget gold, said of the 1960s: "I felt sorry for the designers following us, ten years later, as we had all experimented in so many ways that they found it difficult to be innovative".
This ring was made by another post-war modernist goldsmith: George Weil. It's sculptural and textured, drips of molten gold punctuated by flashes of emerald green and ice white. The plate affixed behind the head states simply, 18ct and PLAT; Mary Anne Wingfield notes that "... in keeping with a great deal of Weils' work, [it] does not carry an assay mark. I always found this odd, given that Weil worked out of Hatton Garden, which is dominated by the London Assay Office. How difficult would it have been to pay the office a visit occasionally?"
Crafted in 18 carat gold with emerald and diamond set in platinum. George Weil was born in Vienna in 1938. In 1939, his family fled to England from Antwerp, just before the start of the Second World War. He briefly attended Saint Martins School of Art in 1956, and later went on to work out of Hatton Garden. The V&A in London has examples of his jewellery in its collection.
Era: Vintage, circa 1965
Ring size: N 1/2 or 7 US. Resize not available
Width at head: 19.2mm
Stones: Diamond (Brilliant Cuts, F/G and VS approx.) & Emerald
Marks: Stamped 18CT and PLAT. Attributed to George Weil.
Condition: Good vintage condition with wear consistent with age. One emerald has a (stable) surface reaching fracture and two are chipped - they remain securely set
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