Did you believe me when I said

[simplysplendid]

I only wanted a 5-7ct spessartite, a neony blue-green tourmaline, a 3-5 carat tsavorite and a 3-4ct burmese untreated royal blue sapphire?

I didn''t believe myself too and I have proven myself right as i am now considering a pair of demantoid garnets that I saw that my jeweler''s. Darn sparkly but of a lighter green colour with a little yellow undertones. 0.70ct each. From Russia.

I have lots of questions now:
What is desirable in terms of colour?
Do all Russian demantoids have the horsetail inclusion or would some be clean?
If there are horsetails, at what level of magnification can i see them? Or should I even care about the horsetails given that they are only 0.70ct in size each.
What is the fair price to pay for a pair?

Pandora, where are you??

 

[Linda W]

HI SS,

I don''t know anything about Demantoids, but I think the highly prized ones have the horsetail inclusions.

If I am wrong, they will let me know here. tee hee.

How lucky you are, those gemstones are so beautiful.


Linda

 

[Pandora II]

Date: 7/10/2008 12:52:50 PM
Author:simplysplendid
I only wanted a 5-7ct spessartite, a neony blue-green tourmaline, a 3-5 carat tsavorite and a 3-4ct burmese untreated royal blue sapphire?

I didn''t believe myself too and I have proven myself right as i am now considering a pair of demantoid garnets that I saw that my jeweler''s. Darn sparkly but of a lighter green colour with a little yellow undertones. 0.70ct each. From Russia.

I have lots of questions now:
What is desirable in terms of colour?
Do all Russian demantoids have the horsetail inclusion or would some be clean?
If there are horsetails, at what level of magnification can i see them? Or should I even care about the horsetails given that they are only 0.70ct in size each.
What is the fair price to pay for a pair?

Pandora, where are you??

Okay...

Colour - it''s subjective as always. Deep emerald green is the most desirable/rare/expensive. The bright neon greens are popular, I personally like the grassy yellower colours. I''ll try and find some pics in a minute. You get more fire with the lighter shades.

Horsetails - IIRC not all Russian stones have the horsetail, but the horsetail is a desirable feature and indicates that it hasn''t been heated and is Russian. The Namibian stones don''t have horsetails. Horsetails will significantly increase the price.

You should be able to see it with a x10 loupe. I would definitely want horsetails.
Clarity - Expect eye-clean.

Price - hmmm, depends on the colour, but I looked at a 1.18ct not top colour one a few months ago and it was over $4k. I would expect them to be expensive. If you''re paying under $2k for the pair I would wonder about them.

I don''t know a lot about demantoids, and there are a few people on PS who know rather a lot, so hopefully they will turn up and give you some advice.

 

[Pandora II]

Here is a picture of some LOVELY demantoids...

 

[Linda W]

Whoa Pandora!!! Those are beautiful!!!!!!!

I love looking at pictures of the horsetails. They really do look like a horse tail

 

[Harriet]

I don''t know much about demantoids, but I do now about ever-growing wishlists.

 

[kcoursolle]

I just spent several minutes looking at this guy''s website...yummy!!! http://demantoidking.com/

I''d love to have a .75 demantoid and set it in a leon halo, one can dream...

 

[Linda W]

KC, thank you for that website. Those stones are gorgeous. I would love to have one also. One can dream.

Linda

 

[simplysplendid]

Hi Linda.. it''s so difficult isn''t it? Unlimited temptations, limited funds..

Hi Kourselle, thanks for the link. It gave me an idea of what colour is desirable for demantoids..

 

[simplysplendid]

Date: 7/10/2008 4:53:17 PM
Author: Pandora II

Date: 7/10/2008 12:52:50 PM
Author:simplysplendid
I only wanted a 5-7ct spessartite, a neony blue-green tourmaline, a 3-5 carat tsavorite and a 3-4ct burmese untreated royal blue sapphire?

I didn''t believe myself too and I have proven myself right as i am now considering a pair of demantoid garnets that I saw that my jeweler''s. Darn sparkly but of a lighter green colour with a little yellow undertones. 0.70ct each. From Russia.

I have lots of questions now:
What is desirable in terms of colour?
Do all Russian demantoids have the horsetail inclusion or would some be clean?
If there are horsetails, at what level of magnification can i see them? Or should I even care about the horsetails given that they are only 0.70ct in size each.
What is the fair price to pay for a pair?

Pandora, where are you??

Okay...

Colour - it''s subjective as always. Deep emerald green is the most desirable/rare/expensive. The bright neon greens are popular, I personally like the grassy yellower colours. I''ll try and find some pics in a minute. You get more fire with the lighter shades.

Horsetails - IIRC not all Russian stones have the horsetail, but the horsetail is a desirable feature and indicates that it hasn''t been heated and is Russian. The Namibian stones don''t have horsetails. Horsetails will significantly increase the price.

You should be able to see it with a x10 loupe. I would definitely want horsetails.
Clarity - Expect eye-clean.

Price - hmmm, depends on the colour, but I looked at a 1.18ct not top colour one a few months ago and it was over $4k. I would expect them to be expensive. If you''re paying under $2k for the pair I would wonder about them.

I don''t know a lot about demantoids, and there are a few people on PS who know rather a lot, so hopefully they will turn up and give you some advice.

Thank you Pandora for the tips. I will make a trip down to the jeweler''s to take a second look. They are more than 2k. I asked the jeweler to look for inclusions and I think there is no horsetail : (

For research, I went to the Palagems site to take a look. This one blew me away (and so did the pricetag!)

http://www.palagems.com/php/db_search.php?action=gemdetail&inventory_number=9422

Interestingly, this demantoid has a little horsetail but is heated? Are untreated (heat) demantoids rare much like rubies are?

 

[simplysplendid]

Date: 7/10/2008 8:13:18 PM
Author: Harriet
I don''t know much about demantoids, but I do now about ever-growing wishlists.

LOL. Oh yeah, my jeweler is evil. Full of temptations, that lady. While I am contemplating demantoids, she called and told me about a nice little ruby cabochon. (ok, ok, confession time. I was also looking at a pretty ring with white icy jade cabochon set in it. I felt that the white jade didn''t do much for my colour so I asked her to hunt for another cabochon).

. I''ll be taking a look at it sometime in the next week or so and will probably post questions..

 

[Pandora II]

Hmm, interesting. I didn't know that they heated demantoids....

Just out of interest, what's the damage on the Pala stone??

It's a bit too tsavorite green for me (not that I don't LOVE that shade), but I like the less desirable colours in demantoid (as does my bank manager

).

I even have a thing about the brownish/greenish/yellowish ones...

 

[simplysplendid]

Date: 7/12/2008 7:08:32 PM
Author: Pandora II
Hmm, interesting. I didn''t know that they heated demantoids....

Just out of interest, what''s the damage on the Pala stone??

It''s a bit too tsavorite green for me (not that I don''t LOVE that shade), but I like the less desirable colours in demantoid (as does my bank manager

).

I even have a thing about the brownish/greenish/yellowish ones...

More than 15. I was a little surprised that a garnet this size would fetch this much. Perhaps I still possess the old school of thought that only rubies and sapphires around this size (perhaps slightly smaller) cost this much...

 

[Harriet]

It''s pricey because demantoids above 1 ct. are exceptionally rare. Also, it''s almost a pure green (sorry, Pandora -- I hate the secondary yellow that most of them have).

 

[Linda W]

I love the pure green ones too Harriet. I don''t care for the brownish yellow ones.

SS: 15,000 ???

 

[simplysplendid]

Date: 7/12/2008 11:52:58 PM
Author: Linda W
I love the pure green ones too Harriet. I don''t care for the brownish yellow ones.

SS: 15,000 ???

Oh yeah, more than 15 big ones..