Shopping & Style1 min ago
Which clarity grade of diamonds to choose when buying proposal ring?
25 Answers
intending to propose soon. Any advice?
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Such expertise ! If the ring is to be worn next to a wedding ring, a jeweller can cut into the gallery of the ring, assuming it has one, so that it fits snugly against the wedding ring (gallery: raised mount for the stone).
Multiple stone rings are inevitably worse value than a single stone of the same price; the ring is only of value for the quality of the stone(s) after all.
Never known a retail jeweller give you info on the clarity of a diamond here in the UK. You'll have to work it out for yourself, using a loupe , a good light and a dark cloth. Names like Asprey, Tiffany and Cartier don't need to tell you a gemmological analysis off the stone or produce a report from one of the institutes, the price and their reputation does that, and the high street jeweller won't bother to help you, even if they have someone qualified; the standard there is much of a muchness.
An insurance valuation is always going to be very generous, and not only because the valuer is charging a percentage of the value he or she assigns to the piece.
It's amazing how people, informed amateurs, are always buying bargains in Hatton Garden or wholesalers (!), when they are dealing with people who've spent their whole lives in the business, often specialising in one type of stone, coloured stones, for example. Bargain as what, exactly? To sell back to the trade for more than you've paid the trade for it? And how long do you wait?
You can pick up , occasionally, a bargain at auction; auctions are a law unto themselves; I did, many years ago, pay about £8,000 total for an emerald ring in Sotheby's, take it down Bond Street for an insurance valuation and got offered ££12,000 by the dealer valuing, but the lot was near bottom of the day in a high value auction , the few buyers left weren't really interested in it, and most of the room had bought the very high value lots and left already.
Still, if you are prepared to do homework and attend jewellery auctions in the famouse houses, get catalogues,examine lots, see and study the market, you get a good idea of what to look for, the prices, and learn how to spot the trade from the passing amateurs who outbid one another to unrealistic levels. You'd pay typically a third of retail for standard stuff, but it's the good stuff you'd be after, often with gemmological reports accompanying. But don't take wife or girlfriend to the auction. show her the catalogue.See the lots in the previews. |If you do take her, at least don't sit with her and don't sit at the front! You may invite imaginative bidding if you do that!
Multiple stone rings are inevitably worse value than a single stone of the same price; the ring is only of value for the quality of the stone(s) after all.
Never known a retail jeweller give you info on the clarity of a diamond here in the UK. You'll have to work it out for yourself, using a loupe , a good light and a dark cloth. Names like Asprey, Tiffany and Cartier don't need to tell you a gemmological analysis off the stone or produce a report from one of the institutes, the price and their reputation does that, and the high street jeweller won't bother to help you, even if they have someone qualified; the standard there is much of a muchness.
An insurance valuation is always going to be very generous, and not only because the valuer is charging a percentage of the value he or she assigns to the piece.
It's amazing how people, informed amateurs, are always buying bargains in Hatton Garden or wholesalers (!), when they are dealing with people who've spent their whole lives in the business, often specialising in one type of stone, coloured stones, for example. Bargain as what, exactly? To sell back to the trade for more than you've paid the trade for it? And how long do you wait?
You can pick up , occasionally, a bargain at auction; auctions are a law unto themselves; I did, many years ago, pay about £8,000 total for an emerald ring in Sotheby's, take it down Bond Street for an insurance valuation and got offered ££12,000 by the dealer valuing, but the lot was near bottom of the day in a high value auction , the few buyers left weren't really interested in it, and most of the room had bought the very high value lots and left already.
Still, if you are prepared to do homework and attend jewellery auctions in the famouse houses, get catalogues,examine lots, see and study the market, you get a good idea of what to look for, the prices, and learn how to spot the trade from the passing amateurs who outbid one another to unrealistic levels. You'd pay typically a third of retail for standard stuff, but it's the good stuff you'd be after, often with gemmological reports accompanying. But don't take wife or girlfriend to the auction. show her the catalogue.See the lots in the previews. |If you do take her, at least don't sit with her and don't sit at the front! You may invite imaginative bidding if you do that!
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