Antique cushion ring

[rubberducky]

As in, ring with an antique cushion, sadly not an antique ring itself.

I tried taking good pictures, but alas, I have only a phone camera and shaky hands. Sorry for the blurring!

I also have no idea how to get the super colorful pictures people have (an online vendor actually has great pics and videos of this particular stone, but we didn’t know about her, or online purchasing at all, until after we bought it from a local store).

Here he (can rings be male?) is from the top—


And the side


And the front!


I especially like the little secret sapphires, they’re FI’s favorite gemstone

 

[aac2013]

Wow, that is lovely! Tell us more about the stone. We love stats here (carat weight, color, clarity, etc.). More importantly, we love pictures. Can you post more, particularly hand shots for real life perspective. Thanks for sharing your ring with us!

 

[rubberducky]

Wow, that is lovely! Tell us more about the stone. We love stats here (carat weight, color, clarity, etc.). More importantly, we love pictures. Can you post more, particularly hand shots for real life perspective. Thanks for sharing your ring with us!

Thank you

It’s 3.38ct (do I call that 3-and-a-quarter?) H VS1. The GIA calls it an Old Mine Brilliant, but my jeweler said it’s between that and an OEC, and wrote the latter on the appraisal.

Forgive the nails, please


A little color maybe?

 

[Bonfire]

Whoa that’s beautiful! Many more pictures please!

 

[Gussie]

Wow! Beautiful!

 

[Calliecake]

Your ring is beautiful and so are your hands!!!

 

[arkieb1]

Gorgeous stone and ring!!!

 

[LightBright]

Wow, what a beautiful antique cushion. And I love the setting, too. Can you tell us how you found your diamond? Did you look at a lot of stones before you found this one? (I’d say your diamond is gorgeous and considerably rare due to the size, cut type, and color.) The setting is absolutely lovely, too. Who made your setting? Did you have any input into the setting? I love those little butterflies on the basket, and such pretty sapphires... Congratulations on your beautiful ring and enjoy it in good health!

 

[luv2sparkle]

Really gorgeous!

 

[ac117]

Gorgeous!!!

 

[alene]

Beautiful ring! The setting is lovely, love the surprise stone!

 

[rubberducky]

Wow, what a beautiful antique cushion. And I love the setting, too. Can you tell us how you found your diamond? Did you look at a lot of stones before you found this one? (I’d say your diamond is gorgeous and considerably rare due to the size, cut type, and color.) The setting is absolutely lovely, too. Who made your setting? Did you have any input into the setting?

Oh boy, it was a bit of a journey!

We went to Harry Winston and Tiffany’s to get a sense of what’s what, but we ended up not loving anything. In particular, I wanted a thinner band and a lower setting, which didn’t seem possible there. I also wanted something unique, but didn’t know what (this will be a recurring theme).

Then the plan was to go to some independent jewelers in the city. The first place we went to had this 3.75ct M VS2 OMC (deep, faced up 9x9mm) that I thought was cute, and at this point I thought a cushion was sort of a quirky spin on a round (I didn’t realize they’re a popular category yet), plus the setting they had was suuuper dainty (which I somewhat confused with liking the stone). But the M felt too off-white, so they said they’d source a variety of cushions of that size (including a lab one, because I insisted in my ignorance ) based on our budget.

When the stones got here, we did a sort of blind tasting where FI and I talked about how we saw each stone in our amateur lingo (“ooh, this one looks like water”) and they told us what it was (stats and such).

We saw a couple of newly cut antique cuts, which in retrospect I think are the optimized ones that are very popular, but they felt kinda sterile, like, too perfect. The lab diamond was plain awful (I said something like “man, this one is just trying too hard” before I knew). There was a super spready 2.5ct that we seriously thought about but decided it was too transparent (I guess this is “leakage”?).

The final one was absolutely gorgeous, which they saved for last because it was a teeny bit above budget. I immediately said no, it’s nice, but it’s not like, 30k nicer than the M we originally saw.

I tried to not think about it after we got home, because, well, why fall in love with something I can’t have? I don’t want to be sad about the stone I end up with by comparison.

During dinner, FI all of a sudden says “I’m surprised you didn’t like the last one”. Uh, of course I did. He then said the budget is soft, it’s not like either of us knows how much one “should” spend on a ring, and he’d rather get me something I loved rather than just felt okay about. Well then

I was still on a quest to find that “unique” ring, so we looked at sapphires and rubies, and even colored diamonds before we committed.

Around the same time, I found this exact stone online, but it felt wrong to order it there given how much this jeweler has already done for us.

Speaking of our jeweler, she kept telling us this is a unique stone, and she’d be hard pressed to find another (I wanted a slightly smaller one), but we weren’t convinced until we went to another jeweler known for antiques and asked them to source something with similar stats, and they basically said it’s not going to happen.

We worked with her to design the setting, which was composed of elements from antique-y rings they had in the store and some google searches. We were often lost (at one point, I was worried that we had too many little details and it would look tacky), so she mostly said to leave it to her, it’ll look nice. And we’re both happy with the outcome, so there’s that!

The ring had to be hand forged for some reason I don’t quite understand, and that took about a month. Midway, we had to modify the design to making things fit. Afterwards, we had a couple of minor issues (too big, wonky prongs, and a melee that was a tad bigger than its friends), which were all fixed promptly, about a week each.

Sorry for all the rambling! I didn’t intend to produce a short novel here...

Tl;dr it took a few months from start to finish, and I went from knowing zero about diamonds to, well, knowing a little more

 

[Matthews1127]

Thank you

It’s 3.38ct (do I call that 3-and-a-quarter?) H VS1. The GIA calls it an Old Mine Brilliant, but my jeweler said it’s between that and an OEC, and wrote the latter on the appraisal.

Forgive the nails, please


A little color maybe?

3 & 1/3.
It’s awesome!! Love the color & the beautiful facet pattern!!! Congratulations!!!

 

[foxinsox]

Oh WOW this is so beautiful! What a fantastic ring. Please post many more handshots if you happen to find yourself at a loose end with a camera and maybe hanging out under a tree with some sunlight filtering through the leaves (best place for getting those rainbows)

 

[Resonance.Of.Life]

Gorgeous! Please do post more handshots !

 

[LLJsmom]

WOW

 

[Ally T]

Beautiful & breathtaking!! What a great find!

We definitely need more ring ****

 

[dkata]

What a Beauty! How do you name her?
Seriously, it is one of the most beautiful cushions I have ever seen! Congratulation! Enjoy your ring!

 

[Slickk]

Gosh, I really love your ring! Congratulations on putting in the time and finding exactly what you love! Many years of much happiness wearing that beauty.

 

[RosieR]

Just stunning @rubberducky !
Wonderfully rare combination of specs in an antique stone. You really have yourself a unicorn ring here! Congratulations. Would you be willing to share who sourced this stone for you? I would love to own an antique stone some day, and one is on my wish list

 

[kgizo]

It is a really beautiful ring and I enjoyed reading about how you found and set it. Congratulations!

 

[Tourmaline]

SO beautiful! I find the best colors when I take pictures in the dappled light under trees.

 

[Bonfire]

I had to come back to mention your choice in settings is perfect. A stunning stone like you have needs no other embellishments or distractions. Congratulations and enjoy wearing her!

 

[aac2013]

Such a gorgeous stone and it looks lovely on your hand (you should be a hand model ). Really one of the best antique cushions I have seen in a long time.

 

[tyty333]

Wow, it (he) is gorgeous! I'm glad you took your time and found what you wanted! Certainly worth the wait!

 

[junebug17]

It’s beyond gorgeous, an absolutely beautiful ring and stone. The setting suits the diamond perfectly. Perfection on your hand. H in an old cut is pretty rare too! Congrats!

 

[HappyNewLife]

In a word - perfection. MORE PICS!!!

 

[rubberducky]

You guys are all so kind! I’ve spent many hours looking at all the lovely rings on this forum, so your approval means so much to me

I will definitely have to try under the trees! Although, I’m already too self-conscious to look at it that much in public, so it’s going to take a new level of courage to start taking pics

Would you be willing to share who sourced this stone for you?

Greenwich St. Jewelers, in downtown Manhattan. They were all super nice and helpful during this whole process, which was great for newbies like us!

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Gorgeous ring!! That is an excellent antique cushion, and they are very hard to find! Lovely setting, too!

 

[minimountains]

I'm also a fan of antique cushions. You found yourself a beauty!