Boodles Sachi 18ct Gold Cedar Grain Ring Size M 7.85g 750 London 1987 Hallmarked

A signed Sachi Fukuhara 18ct gold ring from her Moire series, the band textured with the grain of cedar wood transferred onto gold and finished with a folded polished terminal, retailed by Boodles. Made in Japan, struck K18 as Japanese work is, and hallmarked in London on import in 1987 under Boodle and Dunthorne's own registered sponsor's mark, the year Boodles opened their London shop. A piece with a provenance you can read off the metal: the designer's signature, the Boodles mark and the year, all struck or engraved inside the band.

The designer. Sachi Fukuhara is one of Japan's award winning independent jewellery designers. Her own published record lists the Grand Prix of the International Platinum Design Contest three times, in 1979, 1982 and 1984, the All Japan Grand Prix in 1984, and the World Gold Council Grand Prix and gold medal in 1984 to 85 and again in 1986. She showed at Basel and other international fairs from 1985, worked with the goldsmiths of Valenza in 1988 and Milan in 1995, and received the JEWEL Award in 2004. Her pieces were made for some thirty years by a single goldsmith, Takanori Kitamura, and her stated concept is a return to nature.

The Moire finish. This texture is the signature of her Moire series: the grain of cedar wood (sugi no mokume) transferred onto the metal by a technique of her own, developed for the first World Gold Council contest held in Japan in 1982. She describes the series as the first monument of her career and records that it sold in surprising numbers. What you are looking at on this band is that grain, in gold, with the folded terminal that the series drawings show.

Boodles and 1987. Boodles, then trading as Boodle and Dunthorne, was founded in Liverpool in 1798 and opened its first London shop in 1987, opposite Harrods. This ring carries Boodle and Dunthorne's registered sponsor's mark, B and D, struck beside the London import hallmark, with the Boodles logo inside the band, and the date letter N, which is 1987. Boodles imported it, put their own mark to it and hallmarked it in London in the very year they opened there. In those years Boodles sold jewellery bought in from makers they chose, and in-house design only began in 1990, so a ring by an award winning Japanese designer carrying their mark is exactly how the firm traded. That is not a story we were told; it is what the marks say, read under the loupe here.

Hallmarks: struck 750 for 18ct gold with the London import mark, the date letter N for 1987 and the sponsor's mark B and D of Boodle and Dunthorne, alongside the K18 Japanese fineness stamp, the Boodles logo and the Sachi signature inside the band. Read under a loupe here and photographed on the listing, mark by mark.

Measurements: UK size M on our stick, weighing 7.85g.

Condition: good and sound; the polished faces carry light surface wear consistent with its age and are cleaned and polished before it goes out.

Professionally cleaned and polished before despatch, supplied in a new Chapman gift case, and sent insured by Royal Mail Special Delivery.