How to value a sapphire sugarloaf?

[MamaBear]

I want to know if a ring I have my eye on is overpriced. I know zilch about sugarloaf sapphires. How does one go about determining value? I hesitate to post a pic of the ring at this point as I know lurkers will do their thing. Can you give me some knowledge?? Thank you!

 

[chrono]

Like all gems, colour is what sets the price. Then treatment. After that, it is a combination of size, clarity, dome height, etc. Clarity is a bit more relaxed for cabs and sugarloaves.

Have you done some search for something comparable? That might give you a ballpark estimate.

 

[MamaBear]

I’ve looked around, but I feel like I don’t know what I’m looking for! So the height of the dome doesn’t necessarily come first... Off to look some more at the color! Colored stones are soooo different from diamonds, it’s intimidating to me.

 

[MamaBear]

This is the ring. Seller wants $8500.00. Does this seem reasonable? The sapphire is 1.45ct, the halo is old miners at 2.5ct

 

[Crochet_Sparkles]

This is the ring. Seller wants $8500.00. Does this seem reasonable? The sapphire is 1.45ct, the halo is old miners at 2.5ct

That seems high for the sapphire, but may be reasonable given the diamonds. The sapphire is lovely but generally sugarloaves command lower prices than faceted gems; the advantage of sugarloaves is size, and this isn't a big stone. I would value the sapphire at under $1000; are the diamonds worth the rest in your opinion?
Caveat that I'm by no means an expert.

 

[chrono]

The bulk of the pricing looks to come from the diamonds. OMC estimated colour? They are well cut and clean? Same question applies to the sugarloaf. It is untreated? $8.5K still seems on the high side.

 

[MamaBear]

I’m going to ask more questions. Thank you both for the comments!

 

[Karl_K]

In not an expert on sapphires and some of the consumers here know far more than I do but that said:
Photos are bad for showing color but on my monitor the color of the sapphire looks like one of the colors of synthetic spinel and a bit odd for natural sapphire.

 

[Rfisher]

If that’s a sugarloaf, is it set upside down?
It must be.
for an aesthetic design choice or for some other reason, I’d be curious to know.


looks to be a brand new ring, made with I assume brand new old mine cuts and not too puffy of crowns either. The mine cuts are all visually appealing in their facet arrangements - not like it’d be easy to find in a period piece.

As far as cost and if it’s worth the asking price. Basically it’s sourcing and putting together the ring yourself vs this listing price, other than that I can’t give any insight.

id sure want to know if that pink is shifty and to what.

 

[Neptune]

Did a quick search based on similar weight/tone/saturation and found these unheated/heat-only faceted loose stones. Hope they help even though they're not cabs.

1.29-Carat Light Pink Montana Sapphire - Earth's Treasury

A beautiful light pink unheated Montana sapphire, 1.29 carats.

www.earthstreasury.com

Fine Natural Pink Orange and Padparadscha Sapphires from Gemfix

Fine Natural Pink Orange and Padparadscha Sapphires from Gemfix, American Cut Gems

gemfix.com

Yours looks quite flat (?) for a cab and almost "pearly" to me. Is there a piece of foil under the sapphire?

 

[MamaBear]

Im really glad I asked here! Ive reached out with some more questions and will post an update.
@Neptune , thank you for the recs!

 

[LilAlex]

I am not accustomed to seeing small sugarloaves (-loafs?). Can not recall a 1.5-ct one. That looks (only) translucent to me -- so quite low clarity for such a small light path. The best are near-facet grade and vividly colored. The good ones I have seen are usually quite old since most facetable stuff now just gets faceted. (And plenty of non-facetable stuff seems to get faceted, too.)

That ring does not look original to me. And I would set a sparkler inside that halo; the "supporting cast" puts the star to shame in this case.

 

[MamaBear]

The sapphire is heated, it has been set upside down (a design decision as the color looked better this way). The diamonds are all old cuts, hard to see the poofy crowns as they are set low in the bezels. It is a new ring. Based on this info and what you have all pointed out to me, this is not a ring I will be purchasing. Thank you!

 

[Rfisher]

I can definitely see why this ring caught your eye

sometimes we pay a bit above for things we love and that’s ok if we are ok with it.

I am suprised to hear those old mine cuts are vintage tho. What a find she must have had, to have that many for numerous rings, that look that nice, to repurpose.
shame they are set that low in those bezels