What size sapphire should I put in the centre?

[SoupForLunch]

Hello, this is my first post here! I''ve been reading, lurking and enjoying for a while. I hope some of you can chime in with some opinions.

About 15 years ago I inherited the setting, and another family member got the stones. This setting is hand-carved 14k white gold. Originally there was a 1/2 carat white diamond in the centre. It dates from approximately the 1920''s, I believe. I decided to have a centre blue sapphire and 4 accent diamonds put in it, and enjoyed it this way for many years. The centre stone is a 4 mm blue saphhire and is very dark. At the time, it was the best I could afford, and I didn''t know much about gemstones at all! Now I am ready for a larger, brighter blue saphhire. I don''t mind a bit of heat treatment, and am hoping to spend around $500-$700. I am happy with the small accent diamonds and will leave them. The yellow is starting to show through as well, and needs re-plating.

What size stone would look good in the centre? do you think 6mm would be too big? I''ll try one more photo in the next post. (I can''t figure out how to attach more than one photo in each post)

Thanks!
Soup

 

[SoupForLunch]

in the box.

 

[mercoledi]

Welcome!

Pretty ring! 6mm is probably going to be the max, have you taken it to a jeweler to see what the physical limits are on what you can do? It would be a shame to cover up too much of the metal work.

 

[SoupForLunch]

I haven''t taken it in to a jeweler yet. I am going to the US in a couple weeks and was kinda hoping to already have a stone or two to try out and see how it would look. I''ve probably not given myself enough time

It''s not urgent though.

I was wondering if 6mm might be too big, but 5 might be too small? As I mentioned, it originally had a half-carat diamond in it. I know it wouldn''t be the same as a saph, but roughly how big would that have been?

 

[LD]

It's very difficult to tell exactly what will fit. Certainly from your photos it looks like you could increase the central sapphire size a little because at the moment you can see the underneath of the setting at the side - now whether you could increase by 2mm I'm not sure. Have you tried to measure where a 6mm stone will reach?

What you could do (and you're best doing this in a jewellers), is borrowing 6mm stone, turning it upside down and placing it on top of the sapphire. Then look down from the top to see where it sits. An experienced jeweller should be able to help you and advise you with that.

Excuse my rudeness ....... welcome to the forum

 

[chrono]

A 0.5ct diamond is about 5 mm, so I would guess that that would be the sapphire size you would look for as a replacement. 6 mm might be too big because coloured stones are typically cut deeper so it may not fit in the basket/backing.

 

[SoupForLunch]

Thanks for your helpful replies. Will go to the jewelers soon to check out the size.