*A QAJAR ENCRUSTED AND ENAMELLED GOLD RING PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION Iran, 19th century The plateau drop-shaped, caparisoned with a row of untested seed pearls, encrusted with a row of untested bezel-set cabochon-cut red gems, possibly spinels, and an untested faceted emerald to the centre,the external row and the back painted in polychrome enamels with floral designs and birds, size Q, 3.5 cm high. The decoration, the setting and the use of painted enamels lavishly combine in this ring some of the most quintessential features of Qajar jewellery. The same drop-shaped design and external row of enamel-painted blue petals can be encountered on a heavily diamond-encrusted gold bottle part of the Crown Jewels of Iran (case 27, no. 1), dating to the reign of Naser al-Din Shah (1831 - 1896) (V. B. Meen and A. D. Tushingham, Crown Jewels of Iran, Toronto, 1968, p. 112). The setting of the seed pearls as an external frame is also similar to drop-shaped floral ornaments part of the same collection (ibidem, case 13, p. 76).