1830s 22k Georgian Cannetille Red Spinel Ring

An incredible and gorgeous c. 1820s Georgian cannetille ring, very intricately crafted from rich 22k gold hand-worked with granulated beading, wire filigree, and coiling in the Georgian cannetille fashion. An openwork gallery support five collet-set natural red spinels (approx. 1 – 1.16 carats total). The thick and sturdy shank is entirely decorated with three rows of tightly packed beading.

Made almost exclusively between 1820-30s, cannetille jewelry is representative of the skill and imagination of pre-industrial European jeweler-artisans. Nearly every delicate element seen on this ring required time-consuming hand finishing made economically possible only by the relative inexpensiveness of human labor during the Georgian era (a production model quite unfeasible today). Inspired by embroidery and ornate fabrics, cannetille in part became popular due to its historic flavor and the imaginative romance it evoked with its intricate spirals and threads. After the fall of Napoleon I and the restoration of monarchy in France, a wave of romantic historicism rolled across Europe, perhaps as a repudiation of the chaos of the late 18th century– in essence, a favoring of the reliable sentimental past over the dangerous uncertainty of revolution and industrialization.