WOW !!!!
Eerie, but very cool ....
I was just skimming the DBL site, and stumbled upon this thread. Pretty much kinda-sorta accidentally.
As it happens: I, yours truly, Piglette, moi, the selfsame, am the lucky new owner of the ring that you all have so gratifyingly admired. (Thank you all !!!!)
Yep, she's a beauty! (I may try to provide "hand shots," but I am not adept with digital gadgetry. Usually I just blink my lashes helplessly at DH, who sighs and does whatever it is that needs doing "with computers." But he will not understand the need of internet diamond junkies to see pictures of a ring that they do not own. So he is unlikely to cooperate with this truly community-minded "handshot" project.)
If you are interested, here's the briefest version that I can manage of a long-ish story... (Warning: I like words. I use a lot of them. My idea of "brief" is distorted.)
22 years ago, when DH and I were first engaged, he gave me a family ring. He told me, in all seriousness, that his mother said that she "had something in her jewelry box that had belonged to her great-aunt, and it might do." I did not want some horrible old broken-down ring with a few microchips of diamonds from someone's elderly relative. But when I voiced this opinion to DF (Dear Fiance), he was rather crushed. Had already spoken to his mother. She had seemed happy to contribute to the engagement. It seemed rather churlish to refuse whatever she was sending along, and I did have to recognize that it was very nice of her to give me anything. I decided to graciously accept whatever came my way, to wear it for a while, and to then quietly replace it in ten years or so with a ring I really wanted. I would, I told myself, focus on the good intentions of my soon-to-be-mother-in-law, and not on the pathetic leavings found in the back of her jewelry box.
Near Christmas time, DF held his hand behind his back, and said he had my ring, newly arrived from his mother. He warned me that it was kind of broken down and old. (This was true -- in fact, the prongs were not only broken, but actually BLACK in places, and the band was nearly worn through.) And he then added, in a funny voice, that he thought it might be actually "a little much." Naturally, I thought that he was being ironic, and although I appreciated his effort to poke gentle fun at this embarrassing bit of jewelry that I would have to wear graciously... well, I also thought that his attempt at humor was ill-timed.
As it turns out, the old aunt had made some shrewd investments in Coca-Cola stock, and I was speechless when I saw the ring. Even in its cracked and blackened state, it was stunning -- five old mine-cut diamonds, cut well, set in a straight band. About 60 points each, for a total of 3 cttw. Turns out that my mother-in-law just doesn't really like or value diamonds (prefers pearls). To her, the ring really was "just some old thing that might do." (!!!!!))
So, as it turned out, I loved my ring! In fact, it was something that I might have chosen myself. It was my only nice piece of jewelry, but it was enough. And we were young and poor, but my ring comforted me, and whispered of better days to come. Even when DH and I had only $40 a week for groceries, I had my ring!
Fast forward. The ring was stolen! Just as we all fear our little darlings might be! It was stolen from my classroom, by a student who was not on of "mine." (A diamond had fallen out, and when I gasped at its absence, all my students volunteered to search the floor for the missing diamond. Didn't find the diamond, but all the kids knew about the day's excitement, and my one-and-only-sleazy student apparently watched carefully as I slid the now-incomplete ring into my desk drawer. He told his sleazy friend about the ring, and about where it was.... Etc.) The police quickly turned up the sleazy-friend thief (not even a kid I knew!) and two witnesses. (Three years later, the kid has pleaded guilty to felony theft, and is supposed to make token financial restitution.)
Fight with the insurance company over the value of the ring. (They had been happy to accept premiums for an appraised replacement value of over $12,000, but then questioned the appraisal when it came time for them to pay up.) (BTW -- appraisal was NOT inflated; had not even been made by the seller of the ring, as the ring was so old. We had several appraisals done over the years, all by "dis-interested" jewelers, and all were in a range of $1,500-2,000 of each other. We used the value assigned by a jeweler who had a sideline in old-cut stones.) The insurance company wanted to replace the ring rather than pay out a settlement (fair enough), but wanted to replace it ONLY through their selected jeweler. The jeweler was three hours' distant from me. That would have been okay, until she kept pushing me to accept a pair of earrings instead of a ring, as replacement. (Huh??? "engagement earrings"
?) It was not lost on me that her profit margin on earrings was likely to be much higher than her profit on a ring, and that it was going to be a pain for her to find five matching RB diamonds to duplicate my original ring. She also did no want to talk at all about quality of cut. Then, when I questioned her, and when I insisted that I wanted a ring (not earrings!), the jeweler implied strongly that I was probably scamming the insurance company somehow, anyway. Enough of that!!! I would replace the ring on my own, thank you very much!
There's more to the story, but that's the short version. (Believe it or not! LOL)
Anyway, I finally replaced my engagement ring with a lovely ring from David. A .94-carat "D" colored Asscher, beautifully cut, with yellow side stones.
Two problems: First, the one-carat look was just not what I was used to when I looked at my left hand. A beautiful stone, and large-looking for its carat weight, but not my "old" 3-carat array. Second, even though it was not quite a carat in weight, the center diamond was expensive, and after my experiences, I was paranoid about losing it. (I am very hard on rings and watches, anyway. And, yes, I did have my original ER inspected regularly. ) So, I had ring "shrinkage" combined with continuous nervousness.
I kept looking for a better solution. And then I saw David's listing for the 1.24-carat re-cut stone. VOILA ! (I love rectangular radiants, anyway.)
The center stone is just what I needed/wanted: a nice size (it is as large as many 1.5-carat stones, with about 42 mm-sq. of surface area), a beautiful cut, and yet inexpensive enough so that I wouldn't require actual defibrillation every time I banged my left hand on whatever I am always banging my left hand on.
Had the diamond not been from David, I would never have dreamed of buying it over the internet. But his reputation and the outstanding quality of my first ring were all the assurance that I needed.
I liked the look of the yellow side stones with my Asscher, and I asked David to make this second ring with yellow side stones, also. He suggested a different pair of yellows than I had been eye-ing, but (of course!) David was right about the proportions. I wanted the ring set in a slender band (to fit between my two "wedding bands," which had flanked the five-stone ER), and I wanted it in 18k yellow gold because (a) I like yellow gold; and (b) my wedding bands are both 18k yellow. Once the ring was complete, David said that he really like the look of the yellow gold.
So, I consider myself to be supremely lucky. Really. For under $5,000 (thanks, David!!!), I have a ring with just over 2 cttw, which looks to me, like a much more expensive ring! (and, let's be honest -- isn't that at least a BIT of the point?)
The 1.24-carat center stone mimics a 1.5-carat. Better yet, the stone faces up white -- even when I compare it directly to my "D" stone, it doesn't look like a "K." (great cut!) And I still cannot figure out exactly where the white inclusion is. The stone is ABSOLUTELY eye-clean.
If you have bothered to read this far, then thank you! I hope that I have entertained you, at least a little bit.
...Ummmm... And, yes, re: the original posting: Yellow diamonds look terrific as side stones!
And many thanks to all of you who were complimenting my lovely new DBL ring, without even having a screen name to match to the jewelry!
Best to all !
-- Piglette
colored diamonds
Author