Antique Rings between £0 and £0
A gem-set finger ring in gold or platinum, made for betrothal, mourning or simple dress wear, and here running from the early 18th century to the 1960s.
What Are Antique Rings?
Almost all of them are gem-set rather than plain, and diamond runs through the category, named in more than three quarters of titles on Sellingantiques. Gold sits in roughly half, and 18ct is the commonest single standard. Signets and plain bands are the exception, not the rule.
The piece you're most likely to meet is a small-to-medium 18ct gold diamond ring, Art Deco or early 20th century, set as a cluster or a solitaire. Cluster is the commonest named arrangement, ahead of solitaire and five-stone, and the word engagement sits on 916 titles.
Behind the diamonds come the coloured stones, led by sapphire, then ruby, emerald, opal and pearl, often paired with diamond shoulders or surrounds. Victorian and Edwardian gem-set forms turn up throughout: gypsy settings, daisy clusters, navette and boat heads, graduated five-stone half hoops. Mid-century cocktail and dress rings make up another sizeable slice, in 9ct and 18ct, with silver a small minority.
Dating is weighted hard to the 20th century. The 1930s is the busiest decade in the dealers' own dating, more than the Victorian and Edwardian labels put together, and many pieces are given to a reign rather than a decade. Anything before about 1850 is scarce, and pre-1700 rings barely register at all.
Top And Bottom
Stone weight does most of the work. Carat appears in around 2,048 titles, and the range climbs from tenths of a carat at the bottom to diamonds of four carats and a little over at the top. The largest stones recorded are coloured: a 37.60ct aquamarine dress ring, a 15.33ct cabochon sapphire, a 15.20ct Ceylon yellow sapphire, a 12.00ct star sapphire.
Metal sorts the range next. Platinum and 18ct concentrate in the upper listings, while 9ct and silver cluster among the cheapest. With coloured stones, the words that lift a ring are natural, unheated and no heat, plus a named origin such as Ceylon, Burmese or Colombian; synthetic, paste, doublet and marcasite sit at the other end.
Precision of description follows the same line. Titles carrying an assay office and year, Chester, Birmingham or London, sit above those reading simply vintage or Victorian, and the handful of rings quoting an independent gem report all sit high. Ring size, by contrast, is stated on only a small share of listings either way.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for rings between £0 and £0, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
Around seven hundred antique rings are listed on Sellingantiques each year, from eighty-three different dealers.
The Antique Rings between £0 and £0 Glossary
- 18ct / 9ct / 15ct / 22ct
- Gold fineness in carats out of 24. 18ct dominates this category, with 9ct, 15ct and 22ct appearing regularly.
- Carat (ct) of stone
- The weight of the gem, not the metal. A title reading 0.50 Carat Old Cut Diamond is describing the stone.
- Cluster
- A group of stones set close together so the head reads as one. The commonest named arrangement in these titles, ahead of solitaire and five-stone.
- Old cut / old European cut / old mine cut
- Pre-modern diamond cuts with small tables and high crowns, dated by eye and named constantly across these listings.
- Gypsy setting
- A stone sunk flush into a thick band, a recurring Victorian and Edwardian form. Daisy is the related cluster laid out as a flowerhead, centre stone ringed by petals.
- Navette / boat / bateau
- An elongated pointed-oval head, a repeated antique English shape. Toi et moi is the two-stone version, the pair side by side and often crossing the shank.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which period turns up most often?
The 1930s is the single busiest decade in the dealers' dating, with 1,298 listings, and Art Deco appears on around a third of all titles. The 1920s follow, then the 1960s and 1950s.
Victorian and Edwardian labels are used in place of a year on a good many pieces. Georgian and 18th-century rings appear only as isolated examples.
Are these rings mostly diamond?
Yes. Diamond is named in more than three quarters of titles, which makes it close to universal in the category.
Sapphire is the leading coloured stone, then ruby, emerald, opal and pearl. Many coloured-stone rings pair the main gem with diamond shoulders or a diamond surround.
What does a hallmarked date in the title mean?
It means the ring carries a British assay mark that fixes the year, so the listing can read Birmingham 1911 or Chester 1915 rather than circa.
Chester and Birmingham recur most in hallmarked titles on Sellingantiques, with London appearing less often. Those dated titles sit higher in the range than ones given only as vintage or Victorian.
Do antique rings come with gem certificates?
Only a handful of titles cite one, using phrases like with Gem Lab Report or with Gem Report. Where they appear, those rings sit high in the range.
The great majority of listings describe the stone from the dealer's own reading, with weight, cut and sometimes origin given in the title.
How large do the stones get?
Diamonds run to just over four carats at the top, with 2.62ct, 3.67ct, 4.05ct and 4.27ct among the largest recorded.
Coloured stones go further. A 37.60ct aquamarine dress ring is the biggest of all, followed by a 15.33ct cabochon sapphire, a 15.20ct Ceylon yellow sapphire and a 12.00ct star sapphire.
Is there anything unusual in the category?
A thin seam of novelty and sentimental forms runs through it: double serpents, horseshoes, buckles, padlock hearts, evil eye, lover's knot, and acrostic rings whose stones spell a word.
Uncommon gems surface now and then too, among them jadeite, alexandrite, demantoid garnet, black opal, chrysoberyl cat's eye, blue zircon and morganite, each represented only a few times.