Late 18th Century Rose Cut Diamond Cruciform Ring

 Seven rose-cut diamonds are arranged in a compact cruciform cluster, with a larger central stone and smaller stones radiating outward to form a tiny cross. The shape reads as decorative first and religious second, but the cruciform arrangement would have been recognizable in the 1780s, when crosses and devotional motifs were still common in personal jewelry.

Rose cuts are especially beautiful in jewelry from this period because they were designed for candlelight rather than modern electric light: flat-backed, domed stones with triangular facets that give off twinkly planes of sparkle rather than shattered blue flashes. Here they’re set in silver, as diamonds often were, over a gold shank.