Vintage 9k yellow gold heart signet ring from England 1978.
Great vintage condition
Size: 8.75 resizable
Weight: ~ 2.5 grams
Hallmarks: 375 for 9k, leopard for London, D for 1978, maker’s mark FM in a heart for Fred Manshaw or Fred Mansure
History of this ring maker—his name is actually Manfred Durst and at a very young age, him and his family were taken from Germany to concentration camps during the Holocaust, yet luckily he was one of the children put on the Kindertransport and was sent to London, and later learned that his parents perished.
He had almost no money, and his watch stopped working, so when he went to get it fixed, he noticed the lucrative business of jewelry making. Eventually he started his own jewelry company in a historic building in London known as the Bleeding Heart, hence his hallmark as the shape of a heart, and his first two employees were survivors of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. He eventually became a prominent figure in the Jewish community, as well as the jewelry community of London.