Pandora II
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2006
- Messages
- 9,613
FI and I decided to go and see the new 'Vault' at the Natural History Museum - which is their new gemstone bit.
Sadly it was very small, but they did have some lovely pieces - an AMAZING morganite which was a really rich pinky purple colour, a fabulous Chrysoberyl, and an Alex to die for.
They also had the Aurora Diamond collection which was very spectacular (the largest collection in the world of coloured diamonds in every colour possible for diamonds) They are all small but soooo beautiful. They have it in a case where the light goes ultraviolet every other minute and the fluorescence on some of those stones is amazing.)
The rest of the gemmology section is so badly kept - big dusty cases with very poor lighting, it looks like it hasn't been touched in 40 years or so. All the info is hand typed on scrappy bits of paper. Their gemstones were pretty poor examples - the spess. was barely recognisable as one, and they nearly all had massive windows.
If they'd been nicer, I might have volunteered to go in and sort their cases out for them - but there was almost nothing fun to play with.
They did have a very nice tsav though so that made me a little bit happy!
Anyhow before we went, FI arranged to meet me in Selridges (like your Bloomingdales/Saks 5th), as he had a 20% off voucher. I told him I'd meet him in the bling section!
He was a bit late so I thought I'd go into the Tiffany concession and try on their prong-set wedding bands. The salesman was so nice. I tried on a whole load and was asking carat weights/mm etc and explained my engagement ring was being fixed, so he asked me how many carats my centre stone was, so as to have an idea if I should look at bigger or smaller ones.
So I told him I didn't actually have a diamond but a tsavorite as my centre stone. He literally stopped dead and said - "you have a tsavorite garnet????"
Turned out that he was nuts about tsavs and tanzis, and told me all about the rings he'd designed for his wife. Turned out that his best friend works at Graff so we had a good chat about serious diamonds. As I was leaving he asked me to wait - went off to the back of the shop and came back with a big book on diamonds (not one of the Tiffany ones that they give away - a proper book...) and gave it to me as a gift.
Then he gave me his card and asked me if I'd be happy to come back when I have my e-ring as he'd really like to see my tsavorite - said he didn't care if I had no interest in buying a Tiffany anything, he'd just love to see my stone.
He also gave the name of his friend at Graff and told me to go there, tell his friend he'd sent me and that they were to let me play with anything in the store!
So I take it all back about snobby salespeople in Tiffs!
Sadly it was very small, but they did have some lovely pieces - an AMAZING morganite which was a really rich pinky purple colour, a fabulous Chrysoberyl, and an Alex to die for.
They also had the Aurora Diamond collection which was very spectacular (the largest collection in the world of coloured diamonds in every colour possible for diamonds) They are all small but soooo beautiful. They have it in a case where the light goes ultraviolet every other minute and the fluorescence on some of those stones is amazing.)
The rest of the gemmology section is so badly kept - big dusty cases with very poor lighting, it looks like it hasn't been touched in 40 years or so. All the info is hand typed on scrappy bits of paper. Their gemstones were pretty poor examples - the spess. was barely recognisable as one, and they nearly all had massive windows.
If they'd been nicer, I might have volunteered to go in and sort their cases out for them - but there was almost nothing fun to play with.
They did have a very nice tsav though so that made me a little bit happy!
Anyhow before we went, FI arranged to meet me in Selridges (like your Bloomingdales/Saks 5th), as he had a 20% off voucher. I told him I'd meet him in the bling section!
He was a bit late so I thought I'd go into the Tiffany concession and try on their prong-set wedding bands. The salesman was so nice. I tried on a whole load and was asking carat weights/mm etc and explained my engagement ring was being fixed, so he asked me how many carats my centre stone was, so as to have an idea if I should look at bigger or smaller ones.
So I told him I didn't actually have a diamond but a tsavorite as my centre stone. He literally stopped dead and said - "you have a tsavorite garnet????"
Turned out that he was nuts about tsavs and tanzis, and told me all about the rings he'd designed for his wife. Turned out that his best friend works at Graff so we had a good chat about serious diamonds. As I was leaving he asked me to wait - went off to the back of the shop and came back with a big book on diamonds (not one of the Tiffany ones that they give away - a proper book...) and gave it to me as a gift.
Then he gave me his card and asked me if I'd be happy to come back when I have my e-ring as he'd really like to see my tsavorite - said he didn't care if I had no interest in buying a Tiffany anything, he'd just love to see my stone.
He also gave the name of his friend at Graff and told me to go there, tell his friend he'd sent me and that they were to let me play with anything in the store!
So I take it all back about snobby salespeople in Tiffs!
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