Azure cut?

[Rank Amateur]

Anybody ever heard of an "Azure" cut? I thought the guy was trying to say "Asscher", but then I saw the name in print and it was "Azure". The diamond itself looked like an Asscher to me.

Maybe the names are interchangeable?

 

[rodentman]

I thought Azure was a shade of blue. I fondly remember my brother would say the sky was "azure" when I'd say it was "blue." He liked to argue a lot.




Never heard of that cut. Maybe they are trying to confuse the public by using a word that sounds like "Asscher."

 

[Rank Amateur]

Blue - after the Azure sea? I'd have to google that.

The diamond looked colorless. No blue hue. Supposedly it was from the 1940s

 

[fire&ice]

----------------
On 2/14/2004 11:49:04 PM Rank Amateur wrote:

Anybody ever heard of an 'Azure' cut? I thought the guy was trying to say 'Asscher', but then I saw the name in print and it was 'Azure'. The diamond itself looked like an Asscher to me.

Maybe the names are interchangeable?----------------

I'm thinking the guy went to F&I's school of spelling.

 

[valeria101]

Strange stuff

Here's some info bits:

#1) there is no such thing as an "azure" diamond cut. However azure itself would mean sky blue, but it is also a French noun for "sky". I guess someone could call a diamond "sky cut"...
#2) a diamond can be SET "a joure" (and this French word could be wrongly spelled or pronounced "azure" easily, I guess)
"A jour" describes some method of piercing the surface of jewelry so that light passes through (either through gems metal piercing or enamel); the French word meaning "exposed to daylight". The "ajour" is a small whole placed under a stone mounted flush with the metal (pave or otherwise).

Does it show I just finished teaching English to a 12 years old ?

Tough...

 

[Jennifer5973]

This is very interesting! My Mom called me the other night and said she saw the perfect ring for my 10-yr anniversary (I am on a mission...)

Anyway, she saw it on The Antique Roadshow...she said it was magnificent, from the 20s and they called it an Azzur cut...it's a sort of radiant from the 20s.

 

[glitterata]

I saw that same Antiques Roadshow. I'll bet you a quarter that that was just the appraiser mispronouncing Assher. It looked like a square emerald cut to me, and he even said it used to be called an emerald-cut square, but it had a new name ("Azure") because people think of emeralds as green.

He said it was 5 cts, "very clean, very white," and appraised it at like $30,000. Doesn't that sound low? I might be off by $10,000 or so, but it still sounds low. Shouldn't a "very clean, very white" 5 ct Assher (or even square emerald cut) cost more than that?

 

[valeria101]

----------------
On 2/15/2004 5:17:38 PM glitterata wrote:



I'll bet you a quarter that that was just the appraiser mispronouncing Assher.[...] Shouldn't a 'very clean, very white' 5 ct Assher (or even square emerald cut) cost more than that?
----------------

I hope you are right... this is starting to sound intriguing!
Who knows what 'white and clean' means for this guy: I just left a ~5cts light brownish yellow, VS(no cert) on the jeweler's table at 17k. The stone has some non-descript squarish cut not really the successful old miner's I expected. Some of these lower colors are relatively inexpensive.

Often I am really glad I don't get those TV shows around here...

 

[Rank Amateur]

Right on glitterata! That was the show. I think he said that the value could go up to $50,000 with a confirming lab cert. I was surprised when the graphic came up showing it as an "Azure".

Another thing. When he said "no inclusions" and called it "white" instead of guessing at the color I was suspicious. All the other appraisers on the show use all the technical terminology, why not the proper diamond terms? It left me scratching my head.

 

[glitterata]

Well, he was trying to appraise it in a convention center--maybe the lighting was all wrong for judging color? And the stone was set, maybe that got in the way of judging clarity? It did seem lame, though.

Let's all email Antiques Roadshow & express our outrage!

 

[Jennifer5973]

Well, I asked my Mom more about it...she said exactly as you did that it was something like 5 cts, "clean & very white" and the guy said $30,000, which even I know is low for that, assuming that "very white" means D,E,F, or even G & H....

I wish I had seen it myself... oh well.

 

[tessa]

I think the hold behind a stone in a ring is also called an azure.
ike in an etoile ring the back of the setting has the holes to clean the dimaonds and they are called azures.

Of course, that isn't what the 5 carat very white thing was about.
Wish I had seen that!!!!!!!!

 

[AtlantaC]

I too saw this episode of the Roadshow. I was pretty surprised that a guy who's supposed to be an authority on appraising jewelry appeared not to know what he was talking about. The whole time he's saying "Azure cut", I'm thinking they'll get it right when they edit in the on screen graphics. But nope...there it was "Azure Cut". I lost a little respect for the show then, but still find it insidiously addicting.

 

[Rank Amateur]

I think the show is great! I wonder why they have a new host this year? This Old House has a new host as well.

Anyway, this is the guy who did the appraising.

 

[glitterata]

I'm glad they have a new host. The last one was terrible! He always sounded as if he was reading his speeches to a class of second graders. The worst was those site visits, when he'd go talk to some curator at a museum or something. He would always try to sound spontaneous and crack a little joke, which he had clearly memorized. It was excruciating.

The new host might not be perfect, but she's a whole lot less lame. She actually sounds like she's talking, not reading.

 

[pqcollectibles]

Festivities ring, in Show Me the Ring, looks very similar to the ring on Antiques Road Show. I loved the steps in the cut. The center diamond was beautiful. And those tapered side baguettes were HUGE as well.

 

[fire&ice]

----------------
On 2/16/2004 3:54:17 PM AtlantaC wrote:

I too saw this episode of the Roadshow. I was pretty surprised that a guy who's supposed to be an authority on appraising jewelry appeared not to know what he was talking about. I lost a little respect for the show then, but still find it insidiously addicting.----------------

For the most part the appraisers do know what they are talking about. But, like anything, politics can enter into the picture & some appraisers have less than stellar knowledge - but know the right people.

 

[AtlantaC]

oh absolutely. Even though I've never made a mistake

, I readily acknowledge that others do...even people on TV. It was on again last night, and I almost blurted out more information than my soon to be fiancee needs to know I know if you catch my drift

.