2.4 ct portuguese round cut sapphire

[T L]

I have been looking for an 8mm round to fit an existing setting I had for eons. I never can find a round spinel this periwinkle blue color (my favorite color in a gemstone) or this cut, so when I saw this stone on Tan's site, I took a big risk as it was a heated sapphire, but I thought it was worth it, and I trust Tan. I decided to forgo AIGS, GIT as I heard not so great things about them for corundum, and I had a lousy experience with AIGS (I would send other stones to them, just not corundum). Therefore, I sent it to AGL myself. Christopher Smith, the head gemologist was able to determine it was heated, but he could not diagnostically test for diffusion, so I had them send it off for LA-ICP-MS testing for an extra $100. It took a while as AGL was closed for the last two weeks due to the holiday, but they were very informative and helpful with all my questions, and the secretary emailed me today to tell me it's not diffused!! In all, I think that Tan's sapphire prices are so great that I got an awesome deal even though I had to spend nearly $200 on testing and S&H back and forth, but for me, it's so worth it for peace of mind. Now I have a stone with a great lab report, that I can be proud of. It also gives me added confidence in Tan.

They're shipping the stone back to me today, so these are all the photos I have so far. None of the gem brief yet, but I love love love this stone. It sparkles like a spinel, and yet it's that blue color of a sapphire and shifts to a violet blue in artificial lighting. The cutting is just great. That's a slight tilt window in the photo.

More photos when I get the stone back. I took a couple that day and then shipped it off immediately. I was sad to send it, but I knew I had to because it is so pretty that it was too good to be true for what I paid. It's Tanzanian.

 

[Aoife]

I'm so glad that you received good news about this sapphire, TL, because it looks like a really lovely stone. I am so looking forward to your photos of this! What a fireball.

 

[LD]

Absolutely gorgeous! Great tenacity and well done you.

 

[JewelFreak]

Wonderful stunning color & fire, TL. Super find! Glad for the good lab news too -- impressed with you for keeping at it till you got your info. Looking forward to more pics!
--- Laurie

 

[NKOTB]

Love the colour, love the cut! Good score!

 

[Arcadian]

Very nice! Glad that AGL is open for business, I'm chomping at the bit to (re)send them a stone. BTW did you talk to Chris directly about your stone?

-A

 

[baby nurse]

Beautiful !

 

[minousbijoux]

NEVER get tired of Sapphires Nice cutting and looks like great scintillation. You know me, I love that ever-so-slightly-violet quality. And there's nothing like a good portuguese...

I look forward to the finished product being captured in your mobile studio

 

[Upgradable]

TL, it is absolutely beautiful!!! What great saturation for that color! Sometimes the lighter stones are so watery looking. Not this babe!! Can't wait to see it mounted!

 

[GemFever]

What a lovely!

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Oh, I just love that color! Beautiful! I need to go find Tan's ebay names again. I hope they are on that new list.

 

[T L]

Aofie: Thank you! I can't wait to take more photos as well!

LD: Thank you!

JewelFreak: Thank you! Yes, I was on pins and needles waiting for the results, as it would have been an expensive mistake
if it came back as diffused.

NKOTB: Thank you!

Arcadian: Thank you! I didn't talk to Chris directly, but to his secretary. However, in the past, I did send another sapphire to them,
and I asked to speak to "the gemologist" and Chris came on the phone. I conversed mostly via telephone and email with AGL. They
have great customer service, and even though my stone was not expensive, I felt like I was treated like Harry Winston!! I even told them that I didn't want an LIBS, but an LA-ICP-MS machine, and she told me that Chris confirmed that. You know, one thing people never discuss when it comes to labs is customer service, and I think that is a much underlooked aspect.

BabyNurse: Thank you!

Minousbijoux: Thank you! The scintillation is amazing. The stone is very crystal (not sleepy at all), and has great luster and brilliance.

Uppy: Thank you! Yes, I do love those lighter toned sapphires, but sometimes you do sacrafice saturation. I'm very happy with the
periwinkle blue color on this one. I've seen very rare Vietnemese spinels this color, but I doubt I'd ever get one of those.

GemFever: Thank you!

Diamondseeker2006: Thank you!! Tan's stores are vvs1gem, odysseygem, and gemburionline and he has a new store, thegemology.

 

[erinl]

What a beautiful stone TL! Cannot wait to see it set!

 

[cellentani]

Great news about the lack of treatment, and fantastic cut and color on the sapphire - you did extremely well!

 

[T L]

Erini - Thank you!!

Cell - Thank you! It's still treated (heat), but I'm glad it's not diffused, which would render it pretty worthless to me. I can deal with heat in corundum and some other gems, but nothing more than that.

To all - If you don't care about diffusion, than it's pretty important to get a sapphire for very little money. I just know that sapphires and rubies, although highly marketed and can be quite lovely, have an added cost to them. Unless you're an equipped gemologist, or you can see intact visible rutile, they almost always need further testing. Sometimes even being a gemologist isn't enough, as they have to go through rigorous tesing, as LIBS or LA-ICP-MS. It's a pain, but that's the price you have to pay if you love these gems. I did send a sapphire to AGL last year, and at least they were able to diagnostically test for diffusion, and so the gem brief ($55) was all I had to pay. I still think $100 (in addition to the $55 gem brief) is a bargain for LA-ICP-MS testing, as it takes quite a while and it requires a very expensive state of the art machine.

I love AGL, and I from what I heard, GIA takes forever to test as of late. AGL is prompt, courteous, and I cannot recommend them enough.

 

[Arcadian]

TL, thats true. Their turnaround time has been quite good even through the holidays. My last batch of stones took about 10 days or so? Anyway, they'll have to retest one of mine, not a bad thing, but because I need a more in depth report. Thanks for answering my questions.

-A

 

[T L]

TL, thats true. Their turnaround time has been quite good even through the holidays. My last batch of stones took about 10 days or so? Anyway, they'll have to retest one of mine, not a bad thing, but because I need a more in depth report. Thanks for answering my questions.

-A

They told me ten business days (if it only needed diagnostic testing). Having the LA-ICP-MS done is an additional ten business days, and due to the holidays, they had my gem an additional two weeks, which is fine, as I understand their offices were closed. Had it been normal processing time, it would have been 20 business days.

May I ask what stone need retesting (I'm always curious).

 

[Arcadian]

I sent it as a tsavorite, it came back as a demantoid. I posted it on another board to get some in depth answers once it clicked in my poor overworked brain what I had on my hands. As much as I enjoy pricescope, its really more of a consumer board, and I needed expert information about what to do next.(thanks guys ) So it means another trip back to AGL for Prestige Report.

I don't know how I get myself into stuff like this...


-A

 

[T L]

I sent it as a tsavorite, it came back as a demantoid. I posted it on another board to get some in depth answers once it clicked in my poor overworked brain what I had on my hands. As much as I enjoy pricescope, its really more of a consumer board, and I needed expert information about what to do next.(thanks guys ) So it means another trip back to AGL for Prestige Report.

I don't know how I get myself into stuff like this...


-A

I saw your posting on that other forum. So you want the origin to prove it's Russian? Nice surprise to get a large cushion demantoid instead of a tsavorite. Just know that demantoid can really range far and wide, and if it's African, the value is not as high, even in sizes about 1.5 carats. The prestige report is quite expensive (for origin) as I think that's the higher end report. Good luck.

ETA: I shall try to find it, but I posted a photo of an old Russian mine (the new mine isn't as good material) demantoid ring from the Field Museum. It's a very neon green. If your stone looks like this, I would definitely send it out for a prestige origin report.

Found it! But this is a bad picture, the stone looks radioactive in person. It's a medium tone, and no grey, blue or yellow whatsoever. It was like a glowy piece of green kryptonite. If the stone has a lot of grey or yellow in it, then I wouldn't send it out. It should glow.



ETA again!! Someone posted a yellowish green oval demantoid in that thread, if it's the thread you opened that I'm thinking of. I don't consider that high quality Russian material. I actually have a Russian demantoid that color, and it's not that valuable. Just know that because the stone is Russian, doesn't automatically make it valuable either, and I believe they're finding green demantoids with horsetails in the Middleeast as well these days. The old Russian material is the most valuable, in the neon green color. However, I think based on your AGL report, someone like Barbra Voltaire could easily valuate it. She knows her demantoids, and if she's still doing appraisals, well. . . . and your stone is not enhanced. If it was enhanced, it would say so on the gem brief.

 

[T L]

Arcadian,
Here is another demantoid from the Field museum in a necklace. This color came no where near the quality or beauty of the above stone I posted. Just wanted to show you some examples, as demantoid can be green, but not always exceptional. In fact, this is the color I see most days for demantoid. The only nice thing about this stone was that it was 7 carats.

I hope your stone is greener and more saturated than this one.

 

[Arcadian]

Its nothing like the necklace at all. I've posted about it before on this board actually, but as a tsav, and no one seemed to want to throw it out! So given that, and given what I know now? Yah i find it very worth sending for a secondary look.

I can't say I know what it will come back as and I'm not hinging bets on anything at this point, but, if its Russian, I'd be fine with that .

-A

 

[chrono]

Congrats, TL, on snagging a beautiful sapphire (looks very brilliant and pleasantly coloured - happy coloured is how I think of it) that's not diffused. It's probably a huge load off your mind. Do keep us posted on how well your stone is packed when shipped to you, plus if you can see any identifying marks from the diffusion testing.

 

[minousbijoux]

I sent it as a tsavorite, it came back as a demantoid. I posted it on another board to get some in depth answers once it clicked in my poor overworked brain what I had on my hands. As much as I enjoy pricescope, its really more of a consumer board, and I needed expert information about what to do next.

-A

So that was you! I wondered who had the good fortune to happen to have a Russian demantoid instead of a tsavorite! Congratulations - and the color looked fabulous!

 

[T L]

Its nothing like the necklace at all. I've posted about it before on this board actually, but as a tsav, and no one seemed to want to throw it out! So given that, and given what I know now? Yah i find it very worth sending for a secondary look.

I can't say I know what it will come back as and I'm not hinging bets on anything at this point, but, if its Russian, I'd be fine with that .

-A

I know, I just know the Prestige report with origin is around $400, so it's a lot to spend on something that might not be worth it (it may or may not be, just don't know for sure), so for your sake, I hope it pans out to be a high quality demantoid, as even much new mine Russian material isn't that valuable. Good luck!!

 

[T L]

Congrats, TL, on snagging a beautiful sapphire (looks very brilliant and pleasantly coloured - happy coloured is how I think of it) that's not diffused. It's probably a huge load off your mind. Do keep us posted on how well your stone is packed when shipped to you, plus if you can see any identifying marks from the diffusion testing.

Thanks Chrono, and will do! Last time they shipped me my stone, it came back in the original gem box in an envelope with the memo. There was green tissue paper in the large maling box to cushion it. The only thing I had an issue with was that my address was hand written in ink, and kind of hard to read. I hope that's not the case again, but it is registered and insured.

 

[chloeishere]

WOWZA! I love that stone. Congratulations!

 

[TristanC]

i love the portuguese cut, and your stone highlights why even more. We need more pics of sapphires of this colour range, the fire is so much prettier to my eye than the med/dark gems. Very lovely

 

[T L]

Chloe - Thank you!! Love your stone too and I can't wait to see it set!

Tristan - Thank you! Will do. Yes, unlike your traditional dark blue sapphire, this stone has amazing brillance and luster. Those two qualities are one of the reasons I love spinels so much. I will say this reminds me more of a spinel than a sapphire, but getting a spinel this blue is very hard to do. I was really worried that it was highly treated or even synthetic because the color does remind me of blue synthetic spinel that is used to simulate aquamarine. Fortunately, it has some tell tale natural inclusions, so I wasn't as worried about the synthetic part. If you do an image search on "dawson spinel aqua", the first images that show up remind me of the color.

 

[pregcurious]

Congrats, TL. I admire how you purchase your stones.

 

[T L]

Congrats, TL. I admire how you purchase your stones.

Awww, thanks Pregcurious. That's so sweet of you.

Sneak preview of a nearly 3 carat pink spinel cushion I purchased. It's an ebay purchase, but I've had my eye on this gem forever and ever because of the price and the spectacular cutting. I do appreciate fine cutting too, just hate paying for it. It has some inclusions indicative of natural spinel so I didn't bother sending it to AGL. It sparkles like mad and disperses light into the rainbow of colors, but I cannot capture it here, although if you look closely, you will see some blue in the back of some of facet edges, and that's the color it mainly disperses (blue).

I'm planning on putting it in an existing setting I have. I'm reusing a lot of my settings as I cannot stand the new prices on gold.