22k natural ruby and between 15 and 22 carat diamond(weight) Indian necklace, very unusual.
Dangling beads are natural rubies and emeralds.

Total weight: 76 dwts.
The metal parts have been tested over and over, and are all 22k gold.

Davids notes: This is the finest Indian necklace we have ever offered. Most of the Indian necklaces tend to vary tremendously in quality. The Indians are pretty good at taking advantage of the cheap child labor in their country, often hiring children as young as 8 or 10 to cut stones on diamond wheels on the ground or fill parts of the jewelry sections with wax to make paper thin areas seem heavier. This is a case of a manufacturer going in the other direction. Indian marriages seem to demand 22k necklaces and elaborate workmanship, and the new found economic boom of a rising wealthy upper class has created a need for luxury Indian goods, that are purchased often within the country.Its very rare for a spread of white stones across the front of an Indian necklace to be actual diamonds, usually they are white sapphires, glass or at best, paper thin rose cut diamonds that are thin sheets of faceted diamond rough.In my 50 years as a gemologist, I have never seen diamonds cut like the ones in this necklace. They are cut like thicker rectangular spades for the most part, as the shapes of the large ruby stones in the necklace. The edges of the diamonds are faceted and the design is repeated in the bezel. It takes much much more diamond rough to create these stones, since you need room to make a flat table. Imagine when a woodworker makes a flat dining room table, but he can't make it out of sheets of wood. The piece of wood must be large enough to make the dining room table from one tree. These spade and rectangular shaped diamonds probably weigh .10ct to .20ct carats each, but each one took a .30ct to .40ct diamond to cut down to size and shape. There are 150 diamonds in this necklace, which probably weigh approximately.15cts each. It probably took 150 carats of rough diamonds to make the necklace. Usually we do not estimate weight with rosecut diamonds, because they are so small and thin but the fact these diamonds are so much thicker, heavier and uniform in shape than the traditional rosecut diamonds, we can estimate the total diamond weight at between 15 and 22 carats.

The next unusual thing about this necklace is the ruby material. Generally in the desperation attempt save money in the manufacturing, the Indians will use anything to imitate or simulate the ruby stone without having to use actually ruby. Ruby, sapphire and diamond in their natural state, tend to become outrageously expensive as they get bigger. This necklace has six large spade shaped natural ruby sections, that are gorgeous in color and generous in size. Like the diamonds, they needed to be cut from an even larger piece of natural ruby, to get these one piece shapes, that are impressive and consistent in color. The intense color is known as pigeon blood ruby, even though the term generally refers to rubies in the West, that are translucent, not opaque. The choice to go with opaque ruby material in this necklace is obvious, if these were translucent rubies, their size would drive the price up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. As it is, these spade shaped sections were still extremely expensive.

The reverse side of the 22k gold is enameled in red and green.my guess is the original price when this necklace was made was between 20,000 and 25,000 considering the high cost to make it.

Good condition overall