Deciphering this AGS Cert and pics for pendant?

[dumbo]

I have been shopping for a pendant for my wife: I am leaning toward either a Brian Gavin Cape or this diamond. It is offered by a seller that I trust (with return policy), a very nice I1 (clean at 12") and at a superb price for a 1.8ct I color stone. Even with all of that, the 1.8ct I color will be $1500 more than the Cape.

Again, this is for a Pendant.

Will this stone outperform an M color 1.55ct "Cape" super ideal Brian Gavin? It is bigger, AGS ideal light performance, but not AGS ideal proportions. I want to know how much real-world "performance" I am losing with this vs. the BG Cape. The size difference is marginal: .25mm, but the color is substantial (3 grades) although she is more worried about the brilliance of the stone, not the color.

She is fine with the I1 grade, as long as it is reasonably eye-clean.

 

[Golden_bird]

I have been shopping for a pendant for my wife: I am leaning toward either a Brian Gavin Cape or this diamond. It is offered by a seller that I trust (with return policy), a very nice I1 (clean at 12") and at a superb price for a 1.8ct I color stone. Even with all of that, the 1.8ct I color will be $1500 more than the Cape.

Again, this is for a Pendant.

Will this stone outperform an M color 1.55ct "Cape" super ideal Brian Gavin? It is bigger, AGS ideal light performance, but not AGS ideal proportions. I want to know how much real-world "performance" I am losing with this vs. the BG Cape. The size difference is marginal: .25mm, but the color is substantial (3 grades) although she is more worried about the brilliance of the stone, not the color.

She is fine with the I1 grade, as long as it is reasonably eye-clean.

I would still take the Brian Gavin stone !that stone is J color ,not I ,plus it’s very deep at 63%, so it’s face up smaller than it’s carat weight .plus it’s proportions all over the place . The cut makes the stone sparkle !so don’t sacrifice on that !

 

[dumbo]

I would still take the Brian Gavin stone !that stone is J color ,not I ,plus it’s very deep at 63%, so it’s face up smaller than it’s carat weight .plus it’s proportions all over the place . The cut makes the stone sparkle !so don’t sacrifice on that !

Good catch! J color: I saw the inclusion rating and confused it with color!

BG in M color seems like the better bet.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

I would discourage you from getting an M color for a pendant in a modern round. I'd go no lower than J. And I would not consider an I1 for a piece of fine jewelry. That's just not good quality and I wouldn't consider it. You'd have a heck of a time selling it later if she wanted something else.

How about giving your budget and letting people show you the best stones within your budget? These are two extremes and I think you can end up with a nicer stone than either of these.

 

[dumbo]

Sure! Budget $8500. Light performance and size are most important, color and clarity not so much. She tried on a HOF 2 carat K pendant (out of our price range) and loved the color on that one. Her engagement ring is a relatively eye-clean Si2, 3.01 ct J, AGS ideal light performance.

 

[ac117]

A beautiful option but slightly smaller: https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-di...j-color-si1-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-4312620

Any of these are better than I1 clarity and I can't imagine not being eye clean enough for a pendant (but obviously not mind clean for some):
https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-di...j-color-si2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-3291389
https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-di...k-color-si2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-4483445
Faint brown K: https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-di...k-color-si2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-4345017

 

[diamondseeker2006]

I really like this one that ac177 posted:

https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-di...j-color-si1-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-4312620

Here's a J SI2 that is better than some other SI2s

https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-di...j-color-si2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-3734608

And a K SI1

https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-di...k-color-si1-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-4605816

 

[WinkHPD]

I would discourage you from getting an M color for a pendant in a modern round. I'd go no lower than J. And I would not consider an I1 for a piece of fine jewelry. That's just not good quality and I wouldn't consider it. You'd have a heck of a time selling it later if she wanted something else.

How about giving your budget and letting people show you the best stones within your budget? These are two extremes and I think you can end up with a nicer stone than either of these.

As a jeweler I will not comment on these two diamonds specifically. I will, however, mildly disagree with DiamondSeeker about M colors and I1s. I have clients who prefer the warmer colors and my own ring is a 1.53 ct diamond of a brand I am well known to love that is a P color. I had it Crafted to Order as it was not a color normally crafted by the brand I love. I have never had a professional look at my ring and estimate the color to be lower J on casual observation, and after careful observation one guessed a K.

I have seen I1s that I have happily mounted in fine jewelry, and others I would not take to a dog fight. Like every other aspect of a diamond, it must be seen to know if it will please YOUR eyes. This makes buying such diamonds dangerous when you are not able to inspect them prior to purchase.

I strongly agree with DiamondSeeker that the people here can help you find great diamonds. DS herself has spent thousands of hours helping others do just that.

Enjoy your search.

Wink

 

[diamondseeker2006]

@Wink I actually have an O color AVR which is a precision cut stone, so I am not really opposed to lower color stones in general! But I would not set it to wear in a platinum pendant with my I color AVR engagement ring, because I think the color difference would be too much. That was my concern with it. However, I did fail to ask if they were setting her diamond jewelry in yellow gold, in which case the contrast might not be so great.

I can't budge on the I1 part, though!

Thanks for your kind words, Wink!

 

[WinkHPD]

Budge not fair lady. Your opinions are yours and well and fairly formed. I will share this story with you if you have a few extra moments to spare.

Once I received a call about a diamond I had on my site. It was a little over one carat, an E-I1. The lady asked me if I would make a video of it for her, as she and her husband wanted to get her a nice diamond. I made her the video and sent it to her. I showed it at a normal viewing distance, only after showing it at a highly magnified distance so that she knew exactly where the I1 inclusion was and shortly after received a phone call from her.

"Wink, I really appreciate the video and the close up of the inclusion, but I am disappointed."

I asked her why. She replied, "You did not sing in my video and I really like the videos you sing in."

"Okay, I know you are a religious lady, so I will sing something silly to the tune of 'A mighty Fortress Is My Lord'," I said, "Although it might take me a day to make up the verse."

I did and she loved it and called me still laughing to ask me to send the diamond so that she and her husband and kids could compare it to the other four diamonds they were bringing in.

I sent her my Crafted by Infinity diamond and a slotted tray and told her how to do a fair comparison with all of the other diamonds. (Have one person clean and put all of the diamond on the tray and let the others choose without saying anything.) The other diamonds were all D,E and F colors, VS1 to SI1 clarity and all were AGS0 cut diamonds. They did this seven times and the family unanimously chose my diamond, every time.

Of all of the family, only the seven year old was able to see the I1 inclusion. I too could see it with my eye, although that is what I do all day. Even the seven year old liked my diamond best, for the sparkle was/is to die for.

Two years later, when my wife broke her ankle and had to have surgery, her children made a delightful song up about getting better and sent it to us to enjoy. We did!

Still, for sight unseen diamonds, I find myself more in your camp than mine. Without the ability to see the diamond and see whether or not it will bother you, it is a more dangerous choice. However, they can be a great choice if the budget is small and the desire for larger is strong. A well cut diamond with an inclusion that can be but barely seen at ten inches can be that affordable diamond that makes "HER" heart beat strongly as she looks at it over the years, especially if cut well enough to surprise her with its beauty as she travels into new lighting situations during her daily life.

Wink

 

[WinkHPD]

P.S. You discerned part of the reason why no one guesses my P colored diamond is lower than a J. It is set in highly polished 18kt yellow gold...

 

[yssie]

I don’t think it’s fair to pit CBI I1s against the masses! Every CBI stone is nursed by CBI from rough to sales counter. Inclusions are evaluated (by experts) and manoeuvred around (by experts) with explicit intent to minimise visibility and effect on light return; stones that don’t make the cut don’t get the brand label. OP’s source is certainly not curating their I1s with anything approaching this degree of persnicketing!
@Wink

 

[cflutist]

Personally, for a pendant, I would still choose the Brian Gavin M color over the other stone because the M is still cut for optimal performance.

Set it in 18k yellow gold and you are good to go.
Or, put it in a white halo and have a great discussion piece on your hands.

I own four F color CBI superideal cut diamonds and just bought a Q-VVS2 for that same reason.

I am very interested to see what @diamondseeker2006 does with her O color AVR. She has helped thousands of people on this forum and is to be congratulated for her knowledge and patience.

 

[yssie]

This particular I1 has a crown-side feather that bisects table/bezel facets... In a ring that would make me very nervous. In a pendant - well, it still makes me nervous. Thritto on the 1.58 J SI1 @ac117 and @diamondseeker2006 brought up

 

[WinkHPD]

I don’t think it’s fair to pit CBI I1s against the masses! Every CBI stone is nursed by CBI from rough to sales counter. Inclusions are evaluated (by experts) and manoeuvred around (by experts) with explicit intent to minimise visibility and effect on light return; stones that don’t make the cut don’t get the brand label. OP’s source is certainly not curating their I1s with anything approaching this degree of persnicketing!
@Wink

Agreed my friend. I think this is a hangover from my early days as a Marine. I had it drilled into the core of my being, never bring a knife to a gun fight...

 

[JoJa12345]

I would go with the BGD Cape.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

@Wink, I actually laughed out loud at that story of the lady missing the song in her video! You are a great story teller! And I absolutely get the viewpoint of a seller! There are many people for whom size is their highest priority, and certainly a well cut stone would be ours! So the only way they can get the size in a well cut stone is to go down in color and/or clarity!

And regarding setting your stone in rich 18k yellow gold, I think that's perfect! And my other top choice for low color stones is to enhance the color with a white stone halo, like I did with my YZ AVC and @cflutist is doing with her lovely CBI Q!!! I can't wait to see her ring because I am really totally undecided about what I want to do with my O!

 

[dumbo]

Update! I passed on the stone above, and went with a BG Cape M color, a bit over 1.6ct.

Wow! This is truly stunning. I don't notice the "color" at all: perhaps when compared something with less color, but what I really notice is the fire and brilliance bouncing off the pendant. It faces up with a hint of warmth, but nothing like my mother's engagement ring which was a really dull yellow and reflected almost no light. Not that I blame my father: he didn't have much money and probably went to the only (crappy) jewelry store in our little podunk company mill town.

I can't wait to give it to her.

It is puzzling that more cutters don't do super-ideal in the warmer colors. If you have seven thousand bucks to spend, you could do a whole lot worse than a 1.6ct BGD pendant. I don't care what the color is! It seems the Cape series sells through quickly, so the market is there. They had 6 or 7 listed when i started shopping; now they have 1, and it is 2.5ct plus.

 

[Golden_bird]

Great choice !! Plz show us some pictures! what setting did you chose ??

 

[dumbo]

Low quality picture, but we got a "Cape" pendant from BG. She loves it! It faces up very bright with a hint of vanilla. I wouldn't discourage anyone from pursuing a diamond with a bit of color, provided it is well cut. We couldn't have touched an I color, for example, in this price range that is well cut and not included.

 

[WinkHPD]

Congratulations on getting a diamond that SHE loves! That is always the goal.

Wink

 

[lovedogs]

Low quality picture, but we got a "Cape" pendant from BG. She loves it! It faces up very bright with a hint of vanilla. I wouldn't discourage anyone from pursuing a diamond with a bit of color, provided it is well cut. We couldn't have touched an I color, for example, in this price range that is well cut and not included.

Gorgeous!!! I have an N colored CBI that I adore beyond words! Cut is everything (imho), and lower colored stones can be just as beautiful as higher colors when the cut is right .

 

[lovedogs]

Personally, for a pendant, I would still choose the Brian Gavin M color over the other stone because the M is still cut for optimal performance.

Set it in 18k yellow gold and you are good to go.
Or, put it in a white halo and have a great discussion piece on your hands.

I own four F color CBI superideal cut diamonds and just bought a Q-VVS2 for that same reason.

I am very interested to see what @diamondseeker2006 does with her O color AVR. She has helped thousands of people on this forum and is to be congratulated for her knowledge and patience.

My pure lust and jealousy over your Q will never stop! I love it SO much. If I ever upgrade with HPD it would honestly be to get an even "lower" color I adore my N, but your Q is just beyond anything I've ever seen.

 

[MakingTheGrade]

It looks stunning! I seriously considered a cape diamond when they had the Christmas sale going but passed. It’s still on my list though!

That 4ct P they have right now. Hubba hubba!

 

[dumbo]

I wonder what P color looks like. She is very happy with the M pendant. The ring on her finger in that picture is also an M (taken at 3pm in the summertime while sitting in the shade).