Can I find out where my antique sapphire is from?

[LJsapphire]

I'm not sure, it's thrown me.

We have to go back to the original vendor to get it sized. We also need insurance valuation. I've looked around and the charges are about £60-70 for valuation and my fiancé says he doesn't want to pay that. He thinks the original vendor will give a valuation.

He did mention getting a new stone but I feel ungrateful for wanting one. It does have a lovely colour, to the naked eye at least.
I hope the diamonds are at least natural and the setting is platinum as stamped. It could do with a tiny bit of renovation due to its age so its adding more cost to the ring.

 

[luxroman]

Keep in mind that you are here surrounded by experts looking at close-ups of the ring! No one will know your sapphire is synthetic. You could change it now, change it later on, or never! If you love colored stones and want natural ones, you can get other pieces... Your engagement ring will always be unique because of its symbolism. Your ring is still antique, unique, and really beautiful! That said, don't be afraid to be honest with your fiancé. If you do want a natural gemstone, tell him so. Maybe it doesn't have to now that you get it, but along the way. It's not being ungrateful, it's being honest and honesty is usually appreciated. Better tell him now than later, don't you think?

I understand you're not in an easy and comfortable position! I'm very glad to hear you'll go back to the vendor. Wishing you luck!

 

[sapphiremomma]

Keep in mind that you are here surrounded by experts looking at close-ups of the ring! No one will know your sapphire is synthetic. You could change it now, change it later on, or never! If you love colored stones and want natural ones, you can get other pieces... Your engagement ring will always be unique because of its symbolism. Your ring is still antique, unique, and really beautiful! That said, don't be afraid to be honest with your fiancé. If you do want a natural gemstone, tell him so. Maybe it doesn't have to now that you get it, but along the way. It's not being ungrateful, it's being honest and honesty is usually appreciated. Better tell him now than later, don't you think?

I understand you're not in an easy and comfortable position! I'm very glad to hear you'll go back to the vendor. Wishing you luck!

Well said!!!!

 

[arabella]

Keep in mind that you are here surrounded by experts looking at close-ups of the ring! No one will know your sapphire is synthetic. You could change it now, change it later on, or never! If you love colored stones and want natural ones, you can get other pieces... Your engagement ring will always be unique because of its symbolism. Your ring is still antique, unique, and really beautiful! That said, don't be afraid to be honest with your fiancé. If you do want a natural gemstone, tell him so. Maybe it doesn't have to now that you get it, but along the way. It's not being ungrateful, it's being honest and honesty is usually appreciated. Better tell him now than later, don't you think?

I understand you're not in an easy and comfortable position! I'm very glad to hear you'll go back to the vendor. Wishing you luck!

I totally agree!! [emoji3]

 

[chrono]

Another vote for Luxroman's post!

 

[lovedogs]

Luxroman nailed it on the head with that post. And it makes me happy to see this sentiment--the idea that as long as you LOVE it that nothing else matters! But if you want a natural stone then nothing wrong with expressing that to your fiance--it's not ungrateful at all! Relationships are built on trust and understanding, and I'm confident he will understand if you express potential concerns.

 

[LJsapphire]

Thank you for the replies. Luxroman you're absolutely right. It's still beautiful and I was waiting so long for the proposal (2 years+, we've been together for 5). I think I mentioned earlier in the thread (or maybe one of my others) that when we started looking at rings, and specifically sapphires I suggested lab-created to save money for him. If we had known from the start it wasn't a natural, mined stone I think it wouldn't have been so difficult.

I don't like the idea of him being ripped off, he is so careful at saving money. I hope the fact that it's synthetic doesn't knock too much off its value.
I'll let you know how it goes when we go back to the vendor for sizing.

 

[LJsapphire]

I've finally had it sized. the vendor insisted it was natural.
It has come back with the milgrain repaired and has been cleaned up. I've taken some photos and the sapphire looks a lot clearer, maybe it was just dirt?

 

[pyramid]

Great news LJSapphire, I love posts with a happy ending. It is a very beautiful ring.

 

[LJsapphire]

Thank you Pyramid

 

[missy]

A beautiful antique sapphire ring and I am glad for you that it is a natural sapphire. I love this ring and hope you love wearing it always. Thank you for sharing it with us. And I wouldn't mind lots more pics...just saying.

 

[LJsapphire]

Thanks missy. My fiancé is into his photography (and is better at it than I am), he said he'll have a go with the proper lighting setup at some point. He is currently engrossed in his computer game though

 

[LJsapphire]

More good news is that he's looking for matching earrings for me

 

[luxroman]

Yey!!! I'm very happy for you!
The new picures are beautiful, do not hesitate to show us more

 

[LJsapphire]

I took some more pics - they are in my thread in the antique & vintage forum Flowers included, or I tried!

 

[rockysalamander]

I love your ring. I personally would not care if it was real or not, provided my loved one did not pay the price as if was real. I happily wear several synthetic gems because I just love them or the person who gave them to me. I rock my neon green CZ earring hand-chosen by my then 5-year old.

In any case, just for informational purposes...I ran across your thread and another from 2004 that might useful for others that want to read. I pulled one quote, but there is some interesting exchanges that include theories about color and cutting (see comment from Tunduru).

Vincent Pardieu, 13 Jul 2004, [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/how-to-determine-natural-from-synthetic-sapphire.17347/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/how-to-determine-natural-from-synthetic-sapphire.17347/[/URL]
"I agree with Richard, To check a gemstone weather it is natural or synthetic you will need some instruments (You can buy them or use some from friendly people), some theory (that you can get reading books) but mauinly you will need practice. I mean to be able to study reference stones with your instruments in order to make the correct relation between the stones and the knowledge you have got reading books.

You see in the class I'm teaching about synthetic and treated gemstones, most of my students are working hard (I mean they read books, work the course,...) but then they still have problems to find the things inside the stones as they dont really know what or how to look at in 3 dimension gems.

But slowly day after day they become better. In 2 weeks I hope that a large percentage of the class will be able to graduate.

Anyway I can answer to you:
There are first several kind of synthethic sapphires currently in the market from different methods: Flame fusion, flux grown and hydrothermal. After that you have sapphire imitations (like glass) or assembled gemstones (doublets...)
To identify a flame fusion it can be easy or very difficult (if the stone is clean): Typical inlcusions are gas bubbles, curved color zoning,...
To identify flux grown gems its in general more complicated, you can have typically flux fingerprints, metallic platelets,...
To identify hydrothermal sapphire it can be also a little bit tricky but the chevron like or wave like growth zoning is usually diagnostic.
The proble is that the cleaner the gem the more difficult the identification,... and your stone is clean. May be the best way should be to show it to an experienced professional in this field.

But Richard advise is the one I give usually to my students: if the stone is that cheap, just assume that its a synthetic: So you will not be disepointed if its not: Greed and ignorance are the 2 traps in gem business!"

 

[LJsapphire]

Thanks rockysalamander, I think I read that thread because I was searching the forum like crazy for information.

I did suspect it might be a flame fusion stone due to what I thought were bubbles, but after it came back from being resized it was a lot cleaner and although there are a couple of bubble-like inclusions, there aren't as many as I thought there were. If it's not natural, I don't think it's anything other than synthetic (lab grown) sapphire/corundum. I read that other simulants do not feel as cold, when I'm wearing my CZ ring in the car and I've got the AC on, my sapphire feels so much colder than the CZ.

I also had it valued last week, at the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham. While it isn't AGL or Gubelin, she is a member of Gem-A.
It was a quick valuation for insurance purposes, I had it back within the hour. I had looked at high street jewellers and their valuations were double the cost and involved sending the ring off for 2-3 weeks. I didn't want to be without it for that long.
She valued it at almost double what he paid, so he's happy about that. She said the stone was lovely and didn't mention any possibility of being synthetic.

If at some point in the future (after the wedding perhaps) I decide to have it properly looked at then I've got the recommendations from here to look at.