Margaret de Patta, a modernist paste and gold ring, San Francisco, 1950s, set at an angle with a

Margaret de Patta, a modernist paste and gold ring, San Francisco, 1950s, set at an angle with a prism-shaped yellow paste with faceted ends, to a gold band of asymmetrical design, size U1/2, signed de Patta, stamped 14K

Margaret de Patta (1903-64) was an American jeweller, artist and educator, who was among the founders of the Metal Arts Guild of San Francisco. Famed for her use of optical effects through innovative stone cuts known as 'Opticuts', her work forms part of the collections of several major American museums such as the Smithsonian Institute, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and was the subject of retrospective Space-Light-Structure: The Jewelry of Margaret De Patta at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York in 2012. The present ring was acquired directly from de Patta in the 1950s.