Hi Everyone,
There was no question in my mind when I saw this diamond, we were going to stock it. The cutter, a great friend, is an absolute GENIUS when it comes to the cutting of diamonds, fancy colored in particular. Although his colorless designs are among the best cut stones I've ever seen, the cutting of fancy colors requires a special knowledge.
There was the time, about 3 years ago when he called me up..."Rocky, get your ass up here to
schatz ( look at) a stone.
When this guy calls, I drop everything!
To bad I was holding a dozen eggs at the time...no
Anyway, I go over there and he'd finished a HUGE Emerald Cut. It was almost 6 carats, and was clearly yellow- at least Fancy Light Yellow in it's shade.
"What color do you see Rock?"
It's no better than S-T, I'll give you $200 bucks for it.
Vain attempt.
Seriously, one of the things I love so much about dealing with this guy, is that we both tell it like it is.
I never offer him less than his asking price- in return, he never pads it.
There are guys I need to beat down with a stick to get to them to agree to the right price, but I'd much rather they start there......
So I told him that I thought GIA would give it Fancy Light Yellow, possibly even Fancy Yellow- he agreed.
"How much you think an almost 6 carat Fancy Light Yellow with strong color is worth Rock-ale( pronounced Rock-A-la)?"
$200b bucks, can I write a check....heheh
Seriously, the stone as it was, was worth at least 15-20% more than a Radiant of the same color clarity. In today's market, I'd estimate $75k.
Thing is, he could ( and did
) cut it into a Radiant thereby increasing it's color- and ultimately producing a 5 plus carat Fancy Intense Yellow Radiant , worth well over $100k.
Many Radiant cuts start out as Emerald cuts- even if they are planned as radiant cuts- before the final faceting, they look like emerald cuts.
This step, when done properly , can increase a diamond's color "broadcast" one to two shades.
In the case of this particular U-V color, there was not enough financial incentive to cut to radiant- especially seeing as how it's such a lovely cut.
Not that the almost 6 carat wasn't - it was one of the nicest emerald cuts I've seen.
Its important to recognize that my sentimentality-wanting to keep the diamond as an Emerald- would not work at
his level of the business.
It's a true melding of financial, and artistic genius, what he does as a cutter.
The ability to juggle millions of dollars in the purchasing of the rough, then produce the most beautiful diamonds.
All the while keeping in mind you need to produce beautifully cut diamonds. Shapes that are in demand, and that people want to buy- to finance the next purchase.
The 1.49 is also fluorescent. The GIA report is a "Color Origin" meaning we need to grade the fluorescence ourselves.
To give you an idea of how a fluorescent diamond reacts to UV light, I took these photos.
1) the diamond in the dark, by itself
2)The diamond in room lighting next to an inert diamond ( one with no fluorescence). You can see the UV light I'm using to take the photos. Even here the blue is apparent.
3) once we put the two of them in the dark, the inert stone practically disappears.
The U-V in room lighting. Looking kinda white...
Here's the most yellow I could get it to look in a picture...
I think the diamond will look dynamite set between two colorless emerald cuts... which is what we have in mid for it.....
The you tube
colored diamonds
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