Howdy is this for real? Never seen anything alike, and the band looks rather massive, etc. Is this a fantasy piece?
Thanks,
Mark

Wow that's a heck of a ring! I can honestly say I have never seen anything like it. The styling alone deserves a discussion but the question of authenticity has to fall to our more experienced members. If it's fantasy, it's really well done- the shining swas, with the orthodox cross superimposed directly in the center! Wow...

Hey Mike thanks for the reply! :-)
Yeah it's a very cool ring, but I'd be sorta surprised if it's real.. just my beginner's opinion, because it's so thick and massive and the design seems somewhat modern. But hey, I most certainly was wrong before about ring design and originality, HAHAHA! :-) Interesting piece, eh?
Mark

I have seen this ring in a auction some times ago.

In my opinion the style isn`t german, the hallmark is.
Questionable for me.

Thanks Odal, agreed.

My opinion on this ring is that the side engraving is not identical to the front, I believe that is the key here.
Side engraving has much depth and detail to it while front looks added afterwards and whoever added it was not very skillful at it as you see engraving lines running through the swas where they should not have been.
Front engraving added during or after TR period? how can you tell with engraved rings like this!

VERY good points Ado... probably impossible to tell like with many DAK rings?
Very true, the side engravings are top notch, whereas the front is more like handmade... of course it still COULD be real, but then there's all the other red flags that Odal and I pointed out... at the very least a questionable piece?
Thanks
Mark

Yes at the very least IMHO. Sometimes the souvenir pieces had the shanks already done and the personalization was just for the hand finishing -personalized- on the cartouche, then it was sized. So that is the possibility there with it.... but, campaign TR... that's a minefield. But very interesting ring- thank you for sharing it!

As I do know too few about those rings I want ONLY refer to this posting: Imho this is an optical error. The front engraving is -perhaps- not as deep as the side engraving but remarkable well done. What you think to be lines running into the swaz´ are correct(!) lines which should let the swaz´ appear 3-dimensional.

Perhaps I can add something in general which I could observe concerning IIIR items and IIIR item fakes: in some front sections and especially inside this ring the burnishing looks artificial (also during these times there has been used artificial burnishing) AND not old to me. Could be the pics or the light but it looks to me like burnishing on modern, well faked items.

Just my personal observations, regards,