Opinion on 1.29 ct G SI1 Princess Cut

[crtjester9]

Hello all!
I have been using this site to help guide me through my engagement ring purchase. I have searched online and looked at a few local jewelers to get an idea of what I was looking for. Then, I hit up a jeweler that got great reviews in the diamond district in NYC today. Let me know your opinion, GIA cert 2176541260 around $6,000. Thank you everyone for your input and help!

 

[Gypsy]

Numbers on a lab report tell you nothing about a princess. You need pictures and an ASET.

Or you can get an AGS0 princess. But from what you have posted? The diamond could be gorgeous, or a complete dog. GIA does not grade their princesses for performance. Only AGS does. And if those diamonds are graded by any lab other than GIA or AGS you shouldn't be considering them at all.

The entire purpose of faceting a diamond is to reflect light.
How well or how poorly a diamond does this determines how beautiful it is.
How well a diamond performs is determined by the angles and cutting. This is why we say cut is king. With fancies though (anything other than a round brilliant), that is a little complicated. But no other factor: not color, not clarity has as much of an impact on the appearance of a diamond as its cut.

There really is no other way to determine if you have a good princess is to see images of the stones, and then you need is a way to check actual light performance of your actual stone.

That's what an ASET image does. http://www.highperformancediamonds.com/index.php?page=education-performance Please read.
And ASET shows you how and wear your diamond is reflecting light, how well it is going at it, and where you are losing light return That is why you won't see us recommending vendors like Blue Nile, as they do not provide images or ASET images for their diamonds. James Allen and Good Old Gold do this. So do Brian Gavin and Whiteflash and High Performance Diamonds.

That lab report tells you NOTHING about how the diamond will perform.


Here is what I mean. Compare these two:

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/princess-cut/1.00-carat-g-color-vs2-clarity-sku-295886
G color
VS2
Depth 76.3
Table 69
Ratio: 1.01
Excellent polish
Good Symmetry
Girdle Medium

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/princess-cut/1.00-carat-g-color-vs2-clarity-sku-283672
G color
VS2 clarity
Depth 76.2
Table 69.9
Ratio: 1.02
Very good polish
Very good symmetry
Girdle Thin to Slightly thick

Numbers are VERY close right? And the first one has a better girdle. And while the symmetry on the first one is only good, that's not a disqualifier with princeses.

Now look at the pictures. The first one is a VERY dark stone, and frankly a dog as far as princesses go. Second one is an AGS0 with ideal light return and is very bright, with just enough patterning to provide contrast.

In summary. YOU NEED AN ASET AND IMAGES.

 

[crtjester9]

Hello,
Thank you for that info. I should have added that I did see the stone in person, and it does look good. I had asked to see many others as well, and always kept that one out so I could compare it, and it stayed the best in my mind.

 

[chrono]

You have seen it and we cannot; therefore we cannot tell you anything about your diamond without pictures and ASET. We cannot tell you anything about its light performance based on the numbers on the lab report.

 

[Texas Leaguer]

This article about light performance cut grading at AGSL sheds some light on why it is impossible to evaluate a princess solely from measurements on a GIA report.

https://www.pricescope.com/journal/ags-laboratories-diamond-cut-grading-princess-cut

Hope you find it helpful.