"It's a Micheal!" Ring

I have a ring that was in my father's very unusual jewelry collection.
It has a large center oval diamond about .75 carat (probably faux) and
8 very small diamonds around it. The ring is very large with engraving
on the sides. On the inside it says, "It's a Micheal!", 20k and there
is a serial number.

Has anyone heard of this "brand" or have any idea where this ring is
from? I have seen nothing on the internet or ebay.

THANKS in advance for any ideas.

jcsjcs

On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 21:34:02 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry
(jcs) wrote:

Has anyone heard of this "brand" or have any idea where this ring is
from? I have seen nothing on the internet or ebay.

The spelling of the name Micheal is odd, and 20K is not common. But you're
description doesn't really tell us all that much. If you could get photos of
it, including the markings as well as the outer designs, and post them to the
web, and include the web URL in a followup newsgroup post, I'll bet we could
tell you more. (remember that just attaching the photos to a newsgroup post
doesn't work in this moderated group) One other question... Where it says "Its
a Micheal), is that engraved or otherwise individually marked on the ring (hand
or machine engraving, etc), or is it a stamped in mark? And why do you think
the center stone is not a real diamond?

Peter

Peter (and everyone else) -

I have posted pictures of the ring he
http://home.nyc.rr.com/citrus/michael1.jpg
http://home.nyc.rr.com/citrus/michael2.jpg
http://home.nyc.rr.com/citrus/michael3.jpg

In answer to your questions:
As you can see in the 3rd pic, "Its a Michael" seems to be machine
stamped - as is a serial number below (not pictured).

I now actually think it is a diamond (per a jewelry store in my
neighborhood - they used what seemed like a barbaric tool to try to
scratch my ring before I could protest.) Fortunately on this ring
they were unsuccessful and believe it to be a diamond!

Any other info is much appreciated!

THANKS again -

jcsjcs


On Mon, 29 Sep 2003 04:39:00 GMT, Peter W. Rowe
wrote:

On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 21:34:02 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry
(jcs) wrote:

Has anyone heard of this "brand" or have any idea where this ring is
from? I have seen nothing on the internet or ebay.

The spelling of the name Micheal is odd, and 20K is not common. But you're
description doesn't really tell us all that much. If you could get photos of
it, including the markings as well as the outer designs, and post them to the
web, and include the web URL in a followup newsgroup post, I'll bet we could
tell you more. (remember that just attaching the photos to a newsgroup post
doesn't work in this moderated group) One other question... Where it says "Its
a Micheal), is that engraved or otherwise individually marked on the ring (hand
or machine engraving, etc), or is it a stamped in mark? And why do you think
the center stone is not a real diamond?

Peter

jcs wrote:
Peter (and everyone else) -

I have posted pictures of the ring he
http://home.nyc.rr.com/citrus/michael1.jpg
http://home.nyc.rr.com/citrus/michael2.jpg
http://home.nyc.rr.com/citrus/michael3.jpg

In answer to your questions:
As you can see in the 3rd pic, "Its a Michael" seems to be machine
stamped - as is a serial number below (not pictured).

I now actually think it is a diamond (per a jewelry store in my
neighborhood - they used what seemed like a barbaric tool to try to
scratch my ring before I could protest.) Fortunately on this ring
they were unsuccessful and believe it to be a diamond!

There's a lot of handwork with a graver,
but that 'diamond' has really
soft facet edges and an odd 'cut' that
looks like cast glass to me.
It could be the photo out of
focus, I suppose, but the scratched
gold near it looks sharp.

On Mon, 29 Sep 2003 20:16:55 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry
(jcs) wrote:

As you can see in the 3rd pic, "Its a Michael" seems to be machine
stamped - as is a serial number below (not pictured).

Actually, that "logo" seems to me to be cast as part of the model, rather than
individually stamped on the ring. That suggests it's a production piece, which
then is also born out by the serial number. both the style of the mark, and
the serial number, suggest a fairly recent manufactur, by someone marketing
their work as "designer" jewelry. Might be someone fairly well known, or
perhaps not. I don't happen to recognize the name, but perhaps someone with
more retail exposure would.

The stone sure looks to me like an old rose cut diamond. These were commonly in
use in Victorian times and earlier, and many of these stones, those that are no
longer in their original mountings, get re-used in modern work. Also, the
increasing interest in "antique" styles, has led some indian diamond cutting
firms to start cutting these again, so you can no longer be reasonably certain
that what appears to be an old rose cut is actually all that old. But the
apparent somewhat beat up condition of that center stone at the facet edges,
suggests that perhaps this stone isn't so new. But there's no real way to tell
from the photo.

Again, I can't be sure from the photos, but the side diamonds look rather like
little natural uncut diamond crystals. This would be consistant with some
current designer deciding to create a rustic or antique look using such parts,
and conbined with the somewhat crude hand engraving on the sides of the ring,
I'd guess that this is what you've got. I doubt that the ring is more than 20
years old, though of course I cannot be sure at all. Just my guess.


I now actually think it is a diamond (per a jewelry store in my
neighborhood - they used what seemed like a barbaric tool to try to
scratch my ring before I could protest.) Fortunately on this ring
they were unsuccessful and believe it to be a diamond!

Someone trying to scratch test your diamond? That's not normally considered an
acceptable test to use, since if the stone happens to be a softer stone, either
a cheap imitation, or some other natural stone that's soft enough to scratch,
the jeweler has still infllicted damage on the customers stone, even if it's
not diamond, or not real anything. There are better ways to tell.

Peter

"Peter W. Rowe" schreef in bericht


Someone trying to scratch test your diamond? That's not normally
considered an
acceptable test to use, since if the stone happens to be a softer stone,
either
a cheap imitation, or some other natural stone that's soft enough to
scratch,
the jeweler has still infllicted damage on the customers stone, even if
it's
not diamond, or not real anything. There are better ways to tell.

Peter

This is incredible; in the year 2003 a "jewellery store" is using a scratch
test to see if a stone is perhaps a diamond!
Anyway, a negative test will not automatically suggest that the stone is
really a diamond.
In the old, old days before gemmological instruments were available to
jewellers they using a very hard steel file to distinguish between paste
(i.e. glass) and diamond. Did the file scratch the stone, then of course it
was not a diamond (and in the process possibly a nice looking jewel was
damaged).
But...., a steel file will also not scratch colorless diamond-simulants like
zircon, topaz or sapphire, all stones with a Mohs-hardness greater than de
approx. 7.5 of the steel file. So a scratch test that is negative only says
that the stone in question has a hardness7.5, and that can be quit a number
of minerals.

Any decent jewellery store has a thermal tester that (non-destructively)
positively tests for diamond.
(of course, nowadays we have synthetic moissanite that also tests positive
(so as a diamond) on a thermal tester, but with a 10x loupe doubling of the
facet-edges for this double-refractive stone can be seen by a competent
jeweller)

So I advice you to never to go to that "jewellery shop" again.


Greetings,

Jaap

n answer to your questions:
As you can see in the 3rd pic, "Its a Michael" seems to be machine
stamped - as is a serial number below (not pictured).
I now actually think it is a diamond (per a jewelry store in my
neighborhood - they used what seemed like a barbaric tool to try to
scratch my ring before I could protest.) Fortunately on this ring
they were unsuccessful and believe it to be a diamond!

Any other info is much appreciated!

I'm not sure how much good this information will do you but here are some
observations that make me think it's real.
First off, the color appears to be consistant with a higher karat of gold.
There was also a pretty fair amount of time taken to do the decorative hand
engraving on the sides, and in setting the stones (notice the ring is drilled
through the back for the stones). This would lead me to believe it might be a
custom piece rather than something ready made fron a catalog. They tend to come
pre-drilled. I also wouldn't think someone would take the time to set junk
stones "properly". That tends to be pretty down and dirty.
On the other hand the stones are not reall well cut. I can't tell from the
angle if they are rose cut or it's just a bad photo angle across the table and
the center stone is mine cut. The little mele look to only have a few facets
which isn't out of character for some old diamonds.
How was that for a real long explaination that amounted to "I can't tell
from a picture".

Ok, Here is a different take on your ring...I don't think that it says "It's
a Michael!" What it says is: "It's a Michae!!" The last 2 characters are
exclamation points. That's a Yiddish term meaning something like "it feels
so good" For example, if you've been outside shoveling snow for a while and
are cold and miserable...you come in and stand in front of the fire...it
feels so good..."its a Michea". The problem is that it is an English
transliteration of a Yiddish term, thus the spelling difficulty.

How about it, any chance it could be a Yiddish connection?

Barry


"jcs" wrote in message
news
I have a ring that was in my father's very unusual jewelry collection.
It has a large center oval diamond about .75 carat (probably faux) and
8 very small diamonds around it. The ring is very large with engraving
on the sides. On the inside it says, "It's a Micheal!", 20k and there
is a serial number.

Has anyone heard of this "brand" or have any idea where this ring is
from? I have seen nothing on the internet or ebay.

THANKS in advance for any ideas.

jcsjcs

Barry - VERY interesting take on the words. This is a definite
possiblity considering my father's background. I will also see what I
can dig up on this idea.

THANKS - Jonathan

On Wed, 01 Oct 2003 04:08:19 GMT, "Barry"
wrote:

Ok, Here is a different take on your ring...I don't think that it says "It's
a Michael!" What it says is: "It's a Michae!!" The last 2 characters are
exclamation points. That's a Yiddish term meaning something like "it feels
so good" For example, if you've been outside shoveling snow for a while and
are cold and miserable...you come in and stand in front of the fire...it
feels so good..."its a Michea". The problem is that it is an English
transliteration of a Yiddish term, thus the spelling difficulty.

How about it, any chance it could be a Yiddish connection?

Barry


"jcs" wrote in message
news
I have a ring that was in my father's very unusual jewelry collection.
It has a large center oval diamond about .75 carat (probably faux) and
8 very small diamonds around it. The ring is very large with engraving
on the sides. On the inside it says, "It's a Micheal!", 20k and there
is a serial number.

Has anyone heard of this "brand" or have any idea where this ring is
from? I have seen nothing on the internet or ebay.

THANKS in advance for any ideas.

jcsjcs

I appreciate all of the feedback.

My impressions from all that has been said (keep in mind that I am a
novice around all of this):

1) The jewelry store I went to is barbaric and will not be visited
again. I actually took in a couple more rings - which proved to be
fake AND were partially ruined in the process. None were as
interesting as this ring - so I am not overly upset (though a bit
shocked.) The whole scratching process took very little time and I
was unable to stop them without yelling. I guess I learned something
from this ....

2) My impression is also that this ring is hand crafted and it now
seems likely that the diamond is real. It definitely has some
inclusions and what appears to be an internal fracture, so if anything
it is not a great diamond. I will probably take it to a reputable
store with an electronic tester to be sure. It is FLAT on the back
side - does that mean anything?

3) Finally, this whole exercise began as an approach to find a stone
for my future wife's engagement ring (and to clarify what jewelry I
had from my father.)
While I could use this diamond in a engagment ring:
1) It seems a shame to break up this ring, which I don't
really like at all, but is somewhat interesting.
2) The diamond does not seem to be of a quality and cut that
would look very good in another ring (????)

Any suggestions of what I could do with this ring? I could use the
money to buy something else - and would rather see it in the hands of
someone who would appreciate it....

Thanks again for the feedback.

Jonathan






On Tue, 30 Sep 2003 03:16:34 GMT, (jcs) wrote:

Peter (and everyone else) -

I have posted pictures of the ring he
http://home.nyc.rr.com/citrus/michael1.jpg
http://home.nyc.rr.com/citrus/michael2.jpg
http://home.nyc.rr.com/citrus/michael3.jpg

In answer to your questions:
As you can see in the 3rd pic, "Its a Michael" seems to be machine
stamped - as is a serial number below (not pictured).

I now actually think it is a diamond (per a jewelry store in my
neighborhood - they used what seemed like a barbaric tool to try to
scratch my ring before I could protest.) Fortunately on this ring
they were unsuccessful and believe it to be a diamond!

Any other info is much appreciated!

THANKS again -

jcsjcs


On Mon, 29 Sep 2003 04:39:00 GMT, Peter W. Rowe
wrote:

On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 21:34:02 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry
(jcs) wrote:

Has anyone heard of this "brand" or have any idea where this ring is
from? I have seen nothing on the internet or ebay.

The spelling of the name Micheal is odd, and 20K is not common. But you're
description doesn't really tell us all that much. If you could get photos of
it, including the markings as well as the outer designs, and post them to the
web, and include the web URL in a followup newsgroup post, I'll bet we could
tell you more. (remember that just attaching the photos to a newsgroup post
doesn't work in this moderated group) One other question... Where it says "Its
a Micheal), is that engraved or otherwise individually marked on the ring (hand
or machine engraving, etc), or is it a stamped in mark? And why do you think
the center stone is not a real diamond?

Peter