Ruby Meridian Earrings

Four colours in a single drop, and a red line holding them together.

Down the centre of each earring runs the meridian itself: oval rubies alternating with bezelled round diamonds, a narrow axis of red and white that divides the piece in two and gives the eye its route from ear to tip. Ruby comes to 2.63 carats across the pair, diamond to 0.95.

Above it, a trillion-cut amethyst of 12 millimetres, its facets converging on a central point so the light gathers into the middle of the triangle. Below, a smoky quartz pear of 30 by 15 millimetres and more than forty carats to the pair, set point-up in six claws so the broadest part of the stone hangs lowest, and faceted the whole way round — which is what keeps a stone of that scale alive at the foot of a 64-millimetre drop.

The two are the same mineral. Amethyst and smoky quartz are both quartz: the purple from iron, the brown from aluminium, and the difference between the top of this earring and the bottom is simply which impurity was present as each crystal grew. The ruby line sits precisely between them.

Rose gold is what makes the whole range cohere. Smoky quartz is brown, and brown beside white metal turns grey; against rose gold the warmth in the stone is answered rather than cancelled. The amethyst pulls a shade warmer at the top, the ruby settles naturally in the middle, and four colours read as one family.

Set in 14-karat rose gold.

Please enquire for certification and viewing.