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Has anyone seen a halo or surround of marquise diamonds?

C

cluu

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 11, 2014
Messages
8
Hi,

I am new to Pricescope and learning about engagement rings. My boyfriend and I recently visited an estate and antique jewelry store and stumbled upon a very beautiful and unique ring. It is an antique engagement ring with a round brilliant center diamond and a halo of marquise diamonds. It's very stunning in person and I was surprised by how much I loved it. I can't remember the exact specifications, but it is around H color and SI2 clarity (eye clean) and I want to say the center diamond was at least a carat?

Unfortunately the only thing holding me back is the halo. I am not a huge fan as halos are so trendy right now, but I think this ring is very beautiful. Has anyone seen a halo of marquise diamonds before? I was curious if this is unique enough to not seem like I'm jumping on the halo bandwagon. I've attached three images below.

I really appreciate everyone's help and look forward to hearing from you all!

screen_shot_2014-07-14_at_8_4.png

screen_shot_2014-07-14_at_8_5.png

screen_shot_2014-07-14_at_8_7.png
 
Honestly I don't think Halos are trendy. There are many many vintage rings that have halos. I think if they are done right they are stunning! In fact I will be re-setting my RB into a halo. I think you should pick whatever ring speaks to you. Don't worry about what everyone else is wearing. And to be honest I hardly ever see halos.

ETA: That I think you should be more concerned with the center diamond than the halo. Is GIA or AGS certified? What are the dimensions etc.
 
Maybe it's just me but I am not seeing much faceting in the center diamond. Did the center stone have a crushed ice appearance? Do you have any closer-up shots straight into the face/table? An eye-clean diamond can still be very dull and lifeless if there is a lot of light leakage and a less than optimal cut.

The marquise are unique and I like the general look from a distance but would love a close-up. In the end you have to love it.

Agree with Candygirl: I would worry about the quality of the diamonds - that is the most critical part of the selection.
 
Thank you Candygrl and moneymeister-

I doubt it is GIA or AGS certified. This ring came from an estate in Louisiana and was in bad shape. The jeweler basically rebuilt it, removed the diamonds and cleaned them and created a new band for the head. The jeweler said the caretakers of the estate were wearing all the nice jewelry and didn't treat it well so sit required a lot of TLC.

Unfortunately as for close up shots or specifics, ie dimensions and measurements, I don't have any. I took screen shots from a video so maybe that is why it seems so blurry and the facets aren't clear. It didn't appear to have a crushed ice appearance in the store. The jeweler had only just received the ring recently. She did let us look at the diamond through a loupe so we could see the imperfections, specifically a white scratch underneath the surface, but it is invisible to the naked eye. I'm fairly positive it was either SI1 or SI2 and it was on the G-H-I end of the color scale.

For what it's worth I really trust the jeweler. It was our second time in the store. I know she employs individuals that grade her diamonds. I am just catching onto the lingo in the diamond world so I apologize if any of this doesn't seem to make sense! I'm kind of overwhelmed right now and I want to make sure my boyfriend and I get the most for our money.

Is there anything I should ask the jeweler?

Thanks again!
 
We don't have enough information to give an educated guess on the ring, if it is a good buy or not. It may be a great bargain,a disaster waiting to happen or maybe we could find a better ring for you for less. If you can see a big "scratch" on it with a loupe, I would be concerned and would want to find out what it is. Not knowing the carat weight is another problem. A fraction of a carat can change value by thousands of dollars, also the value is greatly affected by color and clarity. G-H-I is not a color, 'zactly :)
Too many unknowns for my checkbook. I DO UNDERSTAND seeing something and getting excited about it!! You are a SMART person to ask the questions before you buy it.


Do you have a budget you are trying to stay within?
Are you open to letting us look with you?
 
I think marquise halos are lovely. And yes unique.
 
Moneymeister has lots of great advice. There are lots of wonderful people here who can find you an amazing diamond and you can pick a setting that you love once you pick a diamond. Are you open to that? Without any specifics on the diamond it's just too hard to give you an opinion on its quality.
 
Yes, I have seen marquise halos but not often, and yes, they have been lovely.
 
Hi all,

Thank you SO much for your honest advice and help. I am absolutely open to your help. It makes much more sense to find a beautiful diamond and then pick a setting. My boyfriend and I are under a bit of a time crunch to find a ring, so I may have gotten a little excited over the halo one. It was just so beautiful! I'm sure if I requested specifics from the jeweler she would provide them. We had decided on a different ring andI changed my mind because I was so stuck on the marquise halo but I didn't commit the info on it to memory.

We would like to keep our budget at $10,000 including the band, but there is some wiggle room to go slightly above that.

My boyfriend suggested a different option. A family friend has worked in the jewelry business her whole life. She found him a really nice diamond that fits within our budget. She sent a copy of the EGL certificiate and I'm trying to find the resources to analyze the proportions. I've read a lot on the forums about HCA and have entered the proportions in the Pricescope tool, but I'm probably not the best at analyzing it yet. It returned a 1.8 (Excellent range) but I did notice this note below:

"If you only have access to % info (e.g. EGL, IGI or HRD report) then use the %'s to reject known duds, then and ask the supplier to run Sarin angle data on your short list."

This is an EGL report so I only had Crown % and Pavilion %.

The info on the diamond:

1.72 cts, SI1, H color
Graining: Nil
Fluorescence: None

Round Brilliant
7.80 - 7.74 X 4.61 MM.
Cut Grade: Excellent
Proportions -
Total Depth: 59.4%
Table Width: 60%
Crown Height: 14%
Pavilion Depth: 42%
Girdle Thickness: Medium

Finish -
Polish: Excellent
Symmetry: Excellent
Culet: None

She said it is completely eye clean. The report also has a comment of "ideal cut" the proportions of this diamond are within tolerance of those proposed by Marcel Tolkowsky. I read into the Marcel Tolkowsky Ideal Cut info and it says he predicted a 'range or proportions', so I'm hoping this diamond is in the best range.

I greatly appreciate all the help! Please let me know what else I should ask, do or post to help!
 
I am not a fan of halos. But halos with marquise cuts sound beautiful. I am not an expert as to the center stone which is all important. Suffice to say I do not put a halo of marquise diamonds in the same boat as the halos we see today. Is this a newer ring or is it vintage-ala cocktail ring?
 
It's a vintage diamond from around the late 20's/30's
 
cluu|1405441589|3713681 said:
Hi all,

Thank you SO much for your honest advice and help. I am absolutely open to your help. It makes much more sense to find a beautiful diamond and then pick a setting. My boyfriend and I are under a bit of a time crunch to find a ring, so I may have gotten a little excited over the halo one. It was just so beautiful! I'm sure if I requested specifics from the jeweler she would provide them. We had decided on a different ring andI changed my mind because I was so stuck on the marquise halo but I didn't commit the info on it to memory.

We would like to keep our budget at $10,000 including the band, but there is some wiggle room to go slightly above that.

My boyfriend suggested a different option. A family friend has worked in the jewelry business her whole life. She found him a really nice diamond that fits within our budget. She sent a copy of the EGL certificiate and I'm trying to find the resources to analyze the proportions. I've read a lot on the forums about HCA and have entered the proportions in the Pricescope tool, but I'm probably not the best at analyzing it yet. It returned a 1.8 (Excellent range) but I did notice this note below:

"If you only have access to % info (e.g. EGL, IGI or HRD report) then use the %'s to reject known duds, then and ask the supplier to run Sarin angle data on your short list."

This is an EGL report so I only had Crown % and Pavilion %.

The info on the diamond:

1.72 cts, SI1, H color
Graining: Nil
Fluorescence: None

Round Brilliant
7.80 - 7.74 X 4.61 MM.
Cut Grade: Excellent
Proportions -
Total Depth: 59.4%
Table Width: 60%
Crown Height: 14%
Pavilion Depth: 42%
Girdle Thickness: Medium

Finish -
Polish: Excellent
Symmetry: Excellent
Culet: None

She said it is completely eye clean. The report also has a comment of "ideal cut" the proportions of this diamond are within tolerance of those proposed by Marcel Tolkowsky. I read into the Marcel Tolkowsky Ideal Cut info and it says he predicted a 'range or proportions', so I'm hoping this diamond is in the best range.

I greatly appreciate all the help! Please let me know what else I should ask, do or post to help!
Click to expand...

Hi I'm not an expert but I don't like the table or depth for this stone, also I would never buy and EGL graded stone, stick with AGS OR GIA, check out whiteflash or brian gavin for round diamonds they are the cream of the crop :) I'll let the experts chime in and explain further for you why this stone is a bad idea
 
I saw a beautiful setting with the halo made of marquis diamonds for the first time just last week. Sadly I don't have a picture to show but it was quite unique. The marquis were set in such a way that when you looked down on the table the negative space around the marquis created a starburst effect. The centre was designed to hold a 1.5 carat RB. It was very tempting :love:
 
In my former business we constructed many halo rings which we then called cluster rings. Making marquise diamond into the halo was always problematic if there were any of their pointed ends facing outward as they would snag or poke wearers. Tip to tip they works and swirled on a tight diagonal so that their pointed ends did not become too stuck out in the air was mostly how we used them. Sometimes we used round diamonds for all but two or three stones where the shank came up to the halo and there we'd use marquise shapes to spray out to the shank in a floral look. We could tip them downward to get the pointed ends more concealed.

I always loved making cluster rings with small oval diamonds. They were subtle, easy to keep the outer edge smooth, and could add a unique character to the cluster without calling attention away from the main, center stone.

The current crop of halo rings tends to use far smaller diamonds in the halo than we ever used in cluster rings, but the idea is a design that has been long lasting and is less of a fad than many other styles that will come and go.
 
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