Victorian Dendritic Agate Ring

A bold and elegant late Victorian 14k rose gold statement ring, bezel-set with a large natural dendritic agate that’s been cut flat, polished, and contoured with beveled corners. The stone was chosen for its unusual inclusions (present due to iron and manganese in the stone), which look as if natural tufts of moss have been preserved inside the transluscent milky bluish-gray agate. When viewed in person, the stone appears mysterious, wintry, and haunting. The ring is further accentuated with handsome quadfurcated shoulders, which are reticulated, tapered, and engraved with late Victorian eastlake style motifs.

English and Scottish jewelers first came to prize moss agates as a gem-grade stone in the early 19th century, but it is in the late Victorian era that these pieces became immensely popular. As a protest against industrialization, urbanization, and machine production, the Victorian social-cultural atmosphere increasingly turned towards the naturalistic for inspiration and meaning. From the Luddites to the Aesthetic movement, the late Victorian sensibility was perfectly intune with design elements borrowed from nature, and this ring, with its ‘nature embalmed’ mystique, would have resonated well with Victorians.