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Thread: What Is Rubedo?

  1. #1
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    Default What Is Rubedo?

    With the price of precious metals escalating, craft jewellers are exploring a wide range of alternative materials.
    Tiffany & Co have developed Rubedo™, an alloy with an undisclosed formula, of a pale rose colour. They have hallmarked it themselves, they say.
    The word comes from the language of alchemy. Dennis.

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    To be totally honest, it sounds like a fad to me - similar to chocolate gold a few years ago. It looks like rose gold, however the price is too low for gold. May be an alloy of copper and silver? - although I am not an expert

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    Quote Originally Posted by lilia View Post
    ...the price is too low for gold.
    Even thin 9ct? If they've hallmarked it themselves, does that mean it has no hallmark in the legal sense?

    The colour looks similar to what I'd expect of shibuichi (75% Cu, 25% Ag), but there's no way the price could be justified for those materials... Is there?

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    Quote Originally Posted by ps_bond View Post
    but there's no way the price could be justified for those materials... Is there?
    Anything is justified with Tiffany's. They are a designer brand and there are people who would pay an arm and a leg to own a piece of their jewellery (my post lady would) . Although I wouldn't dream to charge their prices on similar pieces of my jewellery.

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    I saw this a few months ago in The Sunday Times. The blurb said it was a blend of metals including copper. £6900 seems an awful lot to charge for a plain cuff but I guess they reckon they can.

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    Quote Originally Posted by lilia View Post
    Anything is justified with Tiffany's.
    Fair point. An item is worth what people are prepared to pay for it.

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    And again

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colored_gold has a nice ternary plot of alloy colour to Ag/Au/Cu proportions. Looks like it has to be around 60% copper at least.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ps_bond View Post
    If they've hallmarked it themselves, does that mean it has no hallmark in the legal sense?
    The items I've seen have T & Co, 1837 and a signature on them. Nothing about the composition of the metal.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ps_bond View Post
    If they've hallmarked it themselves, does that mean it has no hallmark in the legal sense?
    As I understand it, in Alchemy. Rubedo is the last stage before your creation turns into gold. So it could be a kind of hallmark-pending, awaiting the addition of some vipers' tongues and witches' toe nails.
    Last edited by Dennis; 29-03-2012 at 11:26 AM.

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