ADL Solid 10K Yellow Gold Marquise Cut Ruby and Diamond Open Heart Pendant

ADL solid 10K yellow gold open heart pendant set with natural marquise cut rubies and natural diamonds, marked ADL and 10K. The design splits the heart down the middle and treats each half completely differently. The left side is built entirely from stones, marquise cut rubies alternating with marquise shaped settings of small round diamonds, each one angled outward so the row fans like petals rather than sitting flat against the curve. The right side carries no stones at all and is instead pierced with openwork scrollwork, tight gold curls filling the width of the band so light passes through it.

That asymmetry is the whole idea. A heart set with stones all the way around reads as a single bright ring and the eye has nowhere to rest, while a heart with one side worked in open gold gives the stones somewhere to be the brightest thing. The rubies carry a deep saturated red that holds its color even at this small scale, and marquise is an expensive way to cut them, since the shape demands more of the rough and wastes more of it than a round would. The diamonds sit in white metal rather than yellow, which keeps them reading cold and bright against the warm gold rather than picking up a yellow cast.

0.75 inch tall with the bail. Scaled to wear on a fine chain where the openwork stays legible against skin.

Verifications:
Solid 10K gold has been verified using an Auracle Gold Analyzer.
Diamonds have been verified using a Presidium Adamas Diamond Tester, which specifically distinguishes diamonds from moissanite.
Ruby has been verified using a Presidium Gem Tester II.

Details:
Maker's Mark: ADL
Metal: Solid 10K Yellow Gold
Hallmarks: ADL, 10K
Center Stones: Natural Ruby
Ruby Cut: Marquise
Ruby Count: 4
Accent Stones: Natural Diamond
Diamond Settings: 4 marquise shaped white gold settings
Design: Open Heart with openwork scrollwork
Setting: Prong
Height: 0.75 Inch with bail
Condition: Excellent estate condition

Fun Facts:
The chromium that makes a ruby red also makes it glow. Trace chromium replacing aluminum in the corundum lattice absorbs green and blue light to leave red behind, but it also fluoresces, re emitting red light under ultraviolet including the ultraviolet in ordinary daylight. A fine ruby in sunlight is literally generating some of the red you see rather than only reflecting it. That same chromium behavior is why the very first working laser, built in 1960, used a rod of synthetic ruby as its core.
The marquise cut is also called the navette, French for little boat, and the story attached to it is that King Louis XV commissioned the shape to echo the smile of Madame de Pompadour. Lore aside, it survives for a practical reason: the elongated outline spreads a stone's weight across a wider face, so a marquise looks appreciably larger than a round of the same carat weight. Cutters pay for that with waste, which is why marquise stones cost more per carat to produce.