Please help me find a sparkling Pear

[Pearsuer]

Hi! I am looking for the largest possible pear for my budget of $3,500-$4,000. Please help me by giving some recommendations and checklists/procedure for how to choose. The spec I am looking for is as follows:

Cut: Top, sparkling and bright, minimal bow-tie
Shape: Prefer fat than long, but will take long
Color: Can go as low as I (may be J)
Clarity: Can go as low as SI1 eye-clean
SIze: 1.2 ct minimum. Hope to get largest possible for my budget.

Thank you.

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 11/14/2009 3:07:01 PM
Author:Pearsuer
Hi! I am looking for the largest possible pear for my budget of $3,500-$4,000. Please help me by giving some recommendations and checklists/procedure for how to choose. The spec I am looking for is as follows:

Cut: Top, sparkling and bright, minimal bow-tie
Shape: Prefer fat than long, but will take long
Color: Can go as low as I (may be J)
Clarity: Can go as low as SI1 eye-clean
SIze: 1.2 ct minimum. Hope to get largest possible for my budget.

Thank you.

Hi pearsuer!

Love the name! I am a pear owner with a huge interest in the shape, I have viewed quite a few in person also so I will do what I can to help you.

Firstly where do you prefer to buy from, a store or online vendor? If online, you will need to work with a vendor who either has the diamonds in house, or can call them in for evaluation to provide you with images. Otherwise it is really buying blind, in my opinion you can't buy a pear just by numbers, although having said thatthis chart is very useful as an initial screening tool although don't get hung up on the numbers if you find a pear you love which doesn't quite match up .

Here are some vendors who could help you if you are buying online.

www.goodoldgold.com GOG also has a very useful tutorial on fancy shapes.

www.whiteflash.com

www.niceice.com

www.exceldiamonds.com

www.jamesallen.com

The above vendors can provide expert help and also images to assist you. The tools needed in order to purchase and analyse a pear are as follows;

-Detailed photographs
-ASET images to judge the quality of the light return
-A Sarin report to give detailed measurements of the stone, but importantly the crown height.
-An Idealscope image is useful but ASET is always preferable with fancy shapes.

You might also find this very useful shape selector to be of value.

If you are buying online, when you find some pears you like, post the above info here so we can take a look and assist you.

As to your questions;

Cut: Top, sparkling and bright, minimal bow-tie Cut quality needs careful analysis, there is lots to consider as you are aware. Bow ties - don't rely on images to judge these, an experience vendor is needed to advise you. Bow ties may look more prominent at some angles than others so in images a bow tie might look worse than it is or vice versa, so always get your vendor or an appraiser's opinion on how the bow tie shows itself. Although it isn't always possible to eliminate bow ties entirely, they can be minimized in some cases.

Some things to watch for when judging the cut besides the images ( read the link on ASET carefully above to learn how to interpret these images). Depth and table - although not necessarily a deal breaker if you have images and love the diamond, look for pears which have table percentages which are less than the depth. A Sarin report is needed to give the crown height, I would suggest 10% and above for the crown height measurement. Also pears can show different faceting arrangements depending on the cut and the virtual faceting can vary too, for example some pears can show more of a crushed ice effect and others a chunkier bolder faceting look so images are also important to show you which type a particular pear favours.

The girdle, you can find wider girdle variance with fancy shapes moreso than rounds so watch out for very thin especially if the very thin area is in a vulnerable location like the pear tip - get the vendor or an appraiser's advice if such a stone comes up. However not all very thin girdles are an issue, for example if such a girdle measured in the microns in the very thin part and or was not badly placed in a non vulnerable area then it can be perfectly fine, but always always check!! Sometimes you find pears with very thick or extremely thick girdle variance, again check with your expert whether the ex thick parts are placed in perhaps vulnerable areas and are not an issue, or whether the ex thick parts encompass a large portion of the girdle which is undesirable.

Polish and symmetry - if you have good for both and you have images then this might be perfectly acceptable, you normally see good or very good rather than excellent more frequently in fancy shapes rather than rounds, again images are needed to check.


Shape: Prefer fat than long, but will take long Look at the length to width ratios to get an idea of the shape, the shape selector posted above will be useful to show you how the various LXW look on a pear. There is no ' wrong' pear shape, it is up to the buyer what shape they prefer. For example I like my pears to be the classic teardrop shape. Look at the overall shape of the pear carefully, look at the outline - for example some pears have shoulders shaped like shields which I personally do not like. So overall shape is important.


Color: Can go as low as I (may be J) Be aware that pear shapes may show more warmth, also you can sometimes see some warmth concentrated in the pear tip, I can see this in my GIA graded H colour 2 ct pear so I would watch out for this once you hit H colour to be on the safe side, also with I or J colour you might notice more warmth in the body of the stone. This isn't necessarily an issue according to personal taste. Also stick to GIA graded diamonds.


Clarity: Can go as low as SI1 eye-clean That sounds fine, you could even consider SI2 if verified eyeclean by a trusted vendor. Make your expectations known concerning the 'eyecleanliness' of your diamond to make sure you are both on the same page.


SIze: 1.2 ct minimum. Hope to get largest possible for my budget. Sounds fine, great size for a pear, a nice thing about these shapes is they can sometimes look large for the weight.

If you prefer to buy from a brick and mortar store/ jeweller then I would suggest buying your own ASET SCOPE to assist you. They are easy to use and the results straightforward to interpret with a little study.

 

[FB.]

If you want a pear with good white light return, look for a set of proportions close to:

Table: 55-60%
Crown height: 12-14%
Total depth: 61-63%

.

If you want a pear with more coloured light flashes, look for proportions close to:

Table: 52-57%
Crown height: 14-17%
Total depth: 62-65%

.

For a chubby pear, look for a 1.42-1.50 length:width ratio.
Don't go above 60% table and don't go deeper than 66%. Don't go shallower than 59.
Deep stones tend to be very dark. Shallow stones tend to suffer more from bowtie.

Look for polish at least very good.
Look for symmetry at least good.

Try to find girdles within the thin-thick range and definitely avoid extremely thin or extremely thick girdles.

In my experience, some of the best cut diamonds appear to be found in the 1.05-1.20ct range., or other "no man's land" between major carat boundaries.

I've recently found an eye clean SI2, so you might be able to save a bit on downgrading clarity to SI2, although SI1 is a much safer bet. But most sellers will inspect the stone for you to confirm eye clean. Just make sure that your definition is the same as theirs.

 

[tyty333]

Here are a few that I found...
this one is a tad over budget $4230
http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/H-SI1-Ideal-Cut-Pear-Diamond-1186004.asp

you would have to ask about the bow tie on this one
http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/I-VS2-Ideal-Cut-Pear-Diamond-1200469.asp

 

[Pearsuer]

Thanks, Loreli and FB for wealth of information and tyty333 for suggestions. Now, I have a guide for finding my pear.

Found one, but wonder if bow tie is a problem. I tried to adhere to the suggested guidelines for the cut dimensions, but do not know how to interpret the images. Please comment, so I can decide if I should take this pear.

Sarin report:
Depth 62.5%
Table 57.0% (Table < Depth)
Crown Height 13.9%
L/W 1.57 Ratio
Girdle medium to slightly thick 4.94% maximum

Is bow tie a problem from these images?

 

[Pearsuer]

ASET image

 

[Pearsuer]

Idealscope

 

[Pearsuer]

One more look

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 11/24/2009 7:43:26 PM
Author: Pearsuer
One more look

I like it, ask the vendor if the bow tie is prominent, you can''t really tell from photos or images to what extent the bow tie will show. Pretty pear!

 

[FB.]

It's good (and scores 1A on AGA's cut grade estimator based on proportions) but I would probably have preferred just a little deeper for that length:width - maybe 63-63.5%

It looks as if it will be slightly more biased towards brightness and scintillation, but slightly reduced fire. A bit like the equivalent of a Brilliant ideal cut.

 

[tyty333]

I think it is a beautiful pear...I love the shape. Remember bow-ties always look worse in still pictures. Ask them if the bow-tie looks
dark or is it reflecting white.