I’m putting this in GQ because I’m looking for opinions, but preferably experienced informed opinions, not speculation.
One of the few possessions my mother left to me after her passing last March was a ring. Growing up we always called it the Egyptian Poison Ring. The bottom line is, I don’t know anything about it (don’t even know if it’s Egyptian… that’s just what we called it). It was manufactured before 1960. There are no jewels on it. It looks like it might be silver; and of course it has the hidden compartment in it like other poison rings you’d see on the internet. So here are my general questions:
Where/how do I find out more about this ring’s history? It’s not really a value appraisal I’m looking for, more of an ‘Antiques Road Show’ thing were there is an expert who can look at it and say where it might have been made, etc. I suppose that’s still an appraisal, but it’s not the value I’m really looking for.
I don’t think a standard jeweler is going to know anything. Have any of you experienced something like this? I’m at work right now, or I’d post a picture of it.
My great-aunt had such a ring. She bought it at a gift shop in Egypt in the 1920s. It was just costume jewelry, not of great worth because of its inexpensive materials and plentiful manufacture. According to my great-aunt, poison rings were a fad related to the silent film star Theda Bara.
I suggest checking eBay to see whether anything that looks like your ring may be offered.
Nothing on EBay really matched it. I find it interesting where you live, though. My mother lived most of her adult life in Oklahoma. I would speculate that she lived in Oklahoma City when she obtained the ring.
Here’s a link to an Atlanta jeweler who’s a member of the American Society of Jewelry Historians and the National Association of Jewelry Appraisers; she may be able to direct you.
A person who buys and sells vintage jewelry can probably look at it and tell you the decade or so it was manufactured. We do this in our store. I’m somewhat good at it, but there are others in the store who are better. Post a picture, if you can, especially if there are markings inside the ring, and I’ll show it around. The better the pics, the better someone can answer.
Pics weren’t bad, but not definitive. As others have said, these things were made anywhere from the 1920’s-1950’s. I’ve mostly run across them brought back by GIs from WWII. I think they were made in North Africa, Eastern Europe, India and other places.
You may not get much more info that that. Any markings inside the ring? I don’t usually see markings from that period of time.