Opinions on this pink sapphire?

[NKOTB]

Alright, I'll throw it out there. Hopefully you've subscribed to your topic and will get the email at least, sooner rather than later, in case you're interested. Contact Roger Dery if you are!

ETA: he states that there is a hint more orange than the pic suggests, and is much brighter in the hand.

 

[evergreen]

That is lovely! How in the world do you find out about these things? (Is it on his website somewhere? It's certainly not under "spinel"!) From that single picture it's difficult for me to say it's worth exploding my budget, but perhaps Roger would be kind enough to send me some more images. I'll email him. Meanwhile, thanks for posting it. Gorgeous!

 

[NKOTB]

He posted it on his page on a social networking site. I contacted him when I saw the pic (a few days ago now), and told him someone might be interested. He told me that he was headed to Tucson, but that he would watch for an email (not sure what his email access is like down there, or how quick he'll be to respond, or if he can provide extra pics until he gets home, etc.). I would ask him about any shifts to brownish, too, just in case. I would assume not, given the price, but it's always good to ask.

 

[corundum_conundrum]

Evergreen,

I would personally be interested in an update on your progress. Furthermore, Planetary Gems has come up again recently, and while I for one find their website a bit kitschy and would be reluctant to order from them, I would be very interested in how you found your dealings with them. I don't know that an aversion to kitsch and assumptions about a corresponding lack of quality is really a good reason to completely avoid them!

 

[chloeishere]

Thanks, everyone, for your opinions -- and not only opinions, but reasoning behind them as well! It's incredibly helpful for a (compulsive?) data-collector like me. If I go the spinel route, I'll definitely talk with that vendor and see what he thinks about the potential stones, in sum with your very thoughtful comments.

NKOTB, my budget isn't firm-firm, but it's not readily extendable to 2x unless I could reeeeally talk myself into something. I am curious, though, about what stone you're referring to. A light peachy-pink, well-cut, glowing pad-colored spinel? 7.3mm diam sounds delicious. How else can you hint at its source without entirely giving it away? Of course, probably being $1000 means I should be open to letting a shy lurker with a generous budget steal it away... in hopes it'll spur them to create a PS account and post about it! I will leave it to you, NKOTB.

Can I ask for your collective patience in offering opinions for another set of stones? These are all sapphires, 1.25-1.55ct, $460-$521, all "unheated" per their description (but skepticism is invited). The green one is a Montana, and the purple/blues are color-shift (mostly subtle, though the lower-right stone goes from "bluish-platinum undertones in daylight, changing to a pastel platinum-pink color in incandescent light". (The "platinum" -- or, presumably, greyish -- descriptor actually does appeal... I don't mind subtlety sometimes.) Color zoning, as in the lower-left stone, is fine too. I had a crush on a bicolor sapphire a little while ago, which is what started this whole search.

No surprise that I like the first one (Montana) and the last one (light purple) the most, that's just my taste. I do think the Montana might not be as pretty in person-- just a hunch. If it looked like the picture it would be stunning. The darker violet looks more saturated and would probably be very pretty, too. The Roger Dery stone looks promising, too.

I feel like you must have also seen this one on PG, but they do describe it as pad like-- it' right next to the pinkish violet color change sapphire. It's less saturated looking than the first you posted, but I think it would have that orange component you'd want for a pad like stone.



It's about 50 dollars over your budget, but maybe you could talk PG down a bit, since the first stone didn't really look like the picture-- I think the cut looks much nicer than that first stone with the huge tilt window.

 

[minousbijoux]

Chloe - you make an excellent observation about cutting. Taking it one step further, OP one of the things all those stones have in common is the cutting as they all appear to be portuguese cutting which means extra faceting. It does seem like you like stones with intricate faceting patterns, so keep that in mind when you're searching and ask about the cutting.