What color and clarity grades mean

[valeria101]

There are toms of surreal descriptions of diamond color and clarity grades on the Net. Before inspecting diamonds in person, some may be misleading. Many are unclear because they do not refer to commonsensical visual impressions at all.

I found the description below surprisingly levelheaded. It comes from the back of a Sotheby's catalogue. I particularly liked the way it refers to the actual gestures and expectations involved in viewing diamonds: looking at them face up or not, set and unset, relating color with diamond size and recognizing inclusions with and without magnification.

Much of the same you'd find through volumes of Pricescope thread telling the story of buyers' and jeweler's experience telling the story of diamond viewing. You have the story told in two words below with some 'exotic' old world grading categories as a bonus.

Hoping this might help someone

 

[valeria101]

... about the J-K-L group, any idea where 'large' starts for Sotheby's folk ?

 

[fatafelice]

Interesting clarity chart, Ana! The color one isn''t showing up at the moment...

 

[valeria101]

Here it is:

... about the J-K-L group, any idea where 'large' starts for Sotheby's folk ?