Cabochon Rings

Vintage cabochon-emerald rings, cabochon-ruby rings and other rings featuring cabochon-cut gems are polished, intense and enthralling, like the screen sirens who wore them.

The ongoing popularity of statement jewelry and the desire among vintage jewelry enthusiasts for beautifully crafted 20th-century designs have contributed to the return of pieces showcasing bold, juicy cabochon-cut gemstones — on the red carpet, in contemporary design studios, in campaigns by renowned brands and in dealers’ collections. And when we talk about cabochons, we can’t help but think of the stunning jewels worn during Hollywood’s Golden Age. Ladies of the silver screen such as Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich and Mary Pickford often wore their own cabochon jewelry in films and worked with such legendary houses as Trabert & Hoeffer-Mauboussin, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Verdura to create their favorite pieces. 

A cabochon-cut gem is most often an oval or round stone with a flat bottom and a polished dome top. Another much-admired style of cabochon is the sugarloaf, which is shaped more like a high pyramid with a rounded tip.

Softer stones — those that score 7 or lower on the Mohs Hardness Scale — are traditionally cut into cabochons since scratches tend to be less noticeable on a cab’s convex surface than on the flat planes of a faceted cut. Emeralds, which register around 7.5 or 8, are commonly cut as cabochons, although the highest-quality examples are often faceted.

Thanks to its depth, a cabochon cut can intensify the hue of a colored stone like an emerald, sapphire or ruby. And it enhances the optical effects seen in some gems, such as the iridescence, or rainbow-like play of color, in opals; the adularescence, or milky glow, of moonstones; the chatoyancy, or cat’s-eye effect, of tigereyes; and the asterism, or star-shaped display, in star sapphires and rubies.

While they dazzled onscreen in the 1940s and '50s — and were coveted by women wanting to emulate their matinee idols — today, cabochon rings and other cabochon jewels are back, conveying all the glamour of the past.

Find vintage cabochon cocktail rings, cabochon fashion rings and other cabochon rings on 1stDibs.