Thoughts on this stone?

[blacksand]

Your thoughts? This ring in its current setting comes to me from my late grandmother. We know the stone was her older brother's before that, probably his wife's engagement diamond, but no one knows for certain. That would put it somewhere in the 1930's, but it's possible it belonged to someone else in the family before them, so we just don't know.

I honestly expected an RB since I thought it was 1930's, but was secretly stalking the threads here and hoping for an OEC. When I saw this stone for the first time yesterday, I immediately saw the open culet and gasped. And it does have a smallish table. However, as you can see from the profile, it does not have an especially high crown or deep pavilion at all. I don't know what to make of that. Beyond that, I'm really no expert. I don't know enough about faceting to tell you much more than that. We'll take it in for an appraisal after our vacation, but for now, I wanted to get your thoughts.

We will be resetting this and using it as my engagement diamond. The photos are not great, and do nothing to capture this stone's beauty. The light show it produces in even the dimmest of lighting is stunning. Admittedly, I'm a total diamond novice, but it sure is beautiful to me.

 

[elrohwen]

Oh yay! I'm so happy the stone worked out for you!

I would guess it's a late model OEC/transitional. Mine is from the 1920s-ish and is actually very shallow (more so than RBs) and doesn't have a high crown, so I would guess yours is from a similar time period (which fits with your guess of 1930s). The culet is very large, but the faceting also looks like a later OEC, rather than the super chunky cuts of the older versions, but not into the realm of RBs yet. I'm definitely not an old cut expert by any means though, so hopefully someone with more experience will chime in.

In the picture on your hand it looks so bright! Very pretty stone.

Have you had it professionally cleaned yet? If not, you'll be amazed at how much more faceting you can see once it's steam cleaned.

 

[blacksand]

Thank you! If that’s the case, my dad’s Uncle Jack probably was the original owner, then, and I assume he bought the stone around that time (1930s) for his wife. I’m told he had a kind of contest years later (after his wife had passed away) where he promised to give the diamond to the family member who had the most significant accomplishments. Not sure how this was judged, by apparently my grandmother won! And she certainly was a character. She was the kind of woman who would start sentences with “So you’ll never believe what Bruce Willis said to me the other day while I was doing his stage makeup….” and you’d say “Wait…hold on…you do stage makeup? You know Bruce Willis? What?!” I never knew Uncle Jack, but I certainly did know my grandmother, and it’s a honor to have a stone that was hers and that celebrated her amazing accomplishments.

I haven’t cleaned the ring at all yet, and the pavilion is really dirty! But it is super sparkly even as it is. I’m going to try to clean it up tonight, and maybe get a professional cleaning before we get it reset. It can only get better.

 

[stci]

OMG! This OEC is to die for! A beauty! Don't hesitate to use it and imagine when the stone will be clean..... better to have sun glass near you!

 

[Trekkie]

Your grandmother sounds like such a character! You're very lucky to have something so special to remind you of her.

I have no idea if it's an OEC or a tranny, but it's gorgeous! And HUGE! I can't wait to see how you decide to set it!

 

[blacksand]

Thank you!

Is it weird that I love the large culet? I know it creates a window and is probably undesirable to most people. But I love that the stone looks like a flower, with a kind of a depression in the middle and very sparkly petals all around.

 

[HeartingDiamonds]

Beautiful stone, and beautiful story!!

Looks like a late OEC to me too! The table appears a little too small to be a tranny. It does look GREAT on you!

 

[blacksand]

Thanks HeartingDiamonds!

Ok, I have new pictures. I'm really having a hard time capturing this stone with my poor equipment and poor skills, but I'm trying. I cleaned it up a bit with dish soap and hot water. I think it helped, but it could probably still use a professional cleaning. Anyway, here's the after shot. Now I'm having a hard time taking clear pictures because it's too shiny!





As I was taking pictures, I noticed it was flashing blue when the sun shone on it (through the miserable clouds, that is!)



But inside, backlit by the sun, it flashed red.

 

[blacksand]

I guess it's acting like a prism, and it's kind of awesome.



Inside, in artificial light, it produces quite a range of colors:

Yellow



Green



and occasionally an elusive flash of violet, very difficult to photograph.



Also, I am suddenly acutely aware of how hairy my fingers are. But I'm loving this diamond!

 

[Circe]

Blacksand, that is a gorgeous diamond! I love the arrangement of the facets - it's a really lovely example of the cut. How do you think you'll want to set it?

 

[stci]

Fantastic!

 

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

Looks more OEC then transitional too me. What a beautiful diamond and the flowery pattern and prism effect is fabulous. Try soaking it in some scrubbing bubbles and follow that up with a steam clean. Should clean it up nicely.

 

[Dreamer_D]

It looks awesome all cleaned up! What a difference!!

 

[heliotrope]

ooooh!! I just noticed you have given this stunner a bath!!

what a beauty!!

my guess is an OEC too - going by the teeny tiny table and the culet

can't wait to see how you set it

congrats on your stunning stone - the sentimental story behind this only makes it even more precious

enjoy!!

 

[deja_entendu]

Beautiful!!

I LOVE a large culet.

 

[Autumnovember]

Omg. What a gorgeous diamond!!! Your description of it looking like a flower is perfect. I love the large cutlet!!!!

 

[OUpearlgirl]

It's so beautiful! I love the open cutlet as well. I'm jealous!

 

[coati]

Beautiful lively stone!

 

[blacksand]

Thank you! We've put in on the back burner for a little while as we are currently moving in together, and all our resources are going towards that, but we'll hopefully be getting it set in a month or so!

 

[LGK]

OECs, specially ones cut after they invented a way to saw a rough diamond crystal in half and thus make two diamonds, can run a real odd gamut of proportions. They're not all high-crown-high-depth %. There are plenty that are what would be considered extremely shallow for a RB. And even those can be quite lovely, it's just a different look. For example the transitional I had that was a very shallow stone with a low crown was extremely, extremely bright- lots of white light return. I'd definitely call this an OEC, albeit a later one. It has a lovely pattern, I like this style of patterning particularly, where it is a bit more ordered/symmetrical but still really chunky- looks like a snowflake to me.

I like open culets too. They are not nearly as distracting in person as people assume from photographs, even the larger ones.

How awesome that this is a family stone. That always makes it way more special!

 

[blacksand]

Well, it took forever, since we we moving to a new home and busy with the holidays, but we finally got the ring appraised and are putting in an order for a reset today! For anyone interested, these are the approximate specs per the appraisal: approximately 1.13 carat, 6.8mm diameter, 4mm depth, VS2, H-I color. It has a rough girdle, but I don't mind the look of that, and otherwise is totally eye clean. It actually appraised better than I thought it would, and I'm very pleased. I would have loved it no matter what, since it's a family stone, but it's nice to see other people appreciate it as well. The staff all seemed to really admire it.

Anyway, we will be resetting in the the Van Craeynest setting I have been drooling over for months now, and I am so excited to finally get this process started. I can't wait to wear it!

 

[hearts-arrows_girl]

Congratulations! Your stone is wonderful! I love VC settings, your ring will be a knock out!

 

[shopaholics anonymous]

ADORABLE PIECE!!!

 

[RissaLou]

I love this stone! Congrats! FYI...I think the setting is pretty cool too, I've never seen anything like that

 

[blacksand]

Thanks! We had it reset and it arrived last week. I have only horrible, blurry pictures taken with my phone, because we are not engaged yet, and my boyfriend is determined to infuse the proposal with some element of mystery...or something. He took it and hid it. When I say "hid," I mean he put it in the top drawer of my desk. In fairness, his desk fell apart while we were moving, so his enormous computer and gadgets are currently sitting atop my desk. I am deskless and resigned to my laptop for now. Still, I have stuff in the drawers of my desk, so I go in there sometimes, and I also use his computer for work things that require a PC (I'm on a Mac). It's not snooping if it's my desk. Hahaha. He's horrible at keeping secrets and at hiding gifts, so I think it's funny that he wants to "surprise" me with this ring that we picked out and purchased together and that he is currently hiding in my furniture. Anyway, blurry pics here. I'll take nicer ones once the ring is actually legitimately mine. Hopefully soon!

 

[RissaLou]

OOOOHHhhh!!! I LOVE it! Great choice

 

[dinamit]

Blacksand, that is TOO funny! It also rings bells. We picked out the stone and the ring together, and then boyfriend "hid" it for ages (I hope yours doesn't make you wait too long) until he phyched himself to propose. It was always in a really obvious place . Stumbling across the ring all the time didn't help my LIWitis...

The ring turned out beautiful, you must be well chuffed!

dinamit

 

[PearlCura]

Lovely thoughts on this stones makes my heart felt with so much love today.