Victorian Era 10K Gold Claw Pendant Fob w Stirrup Detail & Oversized 14K Ring

Description

Eytan Brandes is a master jeweler with over forty years’ experience designing, selling, buying, repairing, refashioning & appraising jewelry.  In January, 2019 we started the slow but satisfying process of listing Eytan’s inventory on-line so that he can semi-retire and focus more on custom designs.  Please check back as we’re listing new items every week — all fine jewelry in a range of styles and all priced with an emphasis on fairness and realism!
These tiger claw pendants were made by the gazillion after ol’ Queen Victoria was crowned Empress of India in 1876.
They were popular with the British into the early part of the 20th century.
Ours has some issues, but we’re not about to try fixing anything that’s wrapped around a friggin’ claw, and it looks cool, so we’re selling as-is.  Here’s the bad news:
First, it’s marked 14K, but it’s actually 10K.
Second, you can see in the photo of the back of the pendant that the tone of the gold is uneven.  (Under normal light, these defects aren’t noticeable.)  We thought the cap might be gold fill, but the metal is thin and it tests 10K everywhere we scraped.  We think it’s probably just a case of 14K yellow gold wash over 10K gold (which looks rosy because it’s got so much copper in it, not because it’s supposed to be “rose gold.”)
Third, lead solder!  Those Victorians loved their lead solder.  You can see it where the cap is joined to the side piece.
Fourth, it’s not hallmarked, so it’s not British and was not imported to the UK.  A lot of these pendants were made in India;  according to
World Hallmarks
, India didn’t conform to any hallmarking standard before the 1990’s.  But the lack of a hallmark obviously doesn’t prove the pendant was made in India.  Again, we’re selling this as a cool pendant that we think dates from the late 19th century, and that’s about where our sales pitch ends.
Eytan added a nice big oval-shaped ring (measuring about 8.5mm x 7mm on the inside) in recycled 14K yellow gold so this pendant slips easily over even the gnarliest chain.  We’re including the thick black rubber chain you see in the photos.  It’s 19″ long and has a black steel bayonet closure.
When it’s hanging, the total drop of the pendant, including the top ring, is about 2″.  The claw itself is 1″ long and the top cap is 18mm (just under 3/4″) wide and 6mm (just under 1/4″) thick.
The pendant weighs 4.3 grams.  The 14K loops weighs 0.4 grams.  As for the 10K portion, 10K gold weighs approximately ten times more than claw, so we think it’s safe to say the split between gold and claw is roughly even and the 10K gold weight is something like 2 grams.
Note:  Our photos show a lovely range of colors, don’t they?  The actual color of the gold is best represented, at least on our computer screen, by the mannequin photo (the one with the painting in the back).
Thanks for looking!