Ruby on TV programme

[pyramid]

I watched a british tv programme last night called 'Posh Pawn' There was woman who owned a large pear shaped ruby pendant
she got/inherited from her grandmother. She wanted to Pawn it to get money for her business but was going to get it back
later as she was sentimental and wanted to keep it. She thought it would fetch £50,000 anyway. The programme took it
to two appraisers, think one of them was for Christies Auctioneers, there were antique dealers on the show who are on often
in other uk antique programmes.

The estimate was that it was over 20 carats and could fetch £500,000. (not £50,00).
Anyway the point of my post is, they referred to the 4 C's and it was a beautiful red, very beautiful, I am sure anyone would
think that, don't think I have seen as beautiful ...even though on tv. However they said twice that it had perfect cut. The
thing is it was very black .i.e. extinction and only when it shone did you see the beautiful color. It looked black when it was laid
down on the table but even when they held it up perpendicular to the camera it was mostly black except when they moved it and
the beautiful color really shone.

I have seen colored stones here which are showing color all the time, and have read that Lady Diana's ring looks dark and it was
in that same way if not more so that you could see the extinction. So is this judged as good in some quarters, i.e. contrast between
the black and color or what gives. Maybe tv cameras but then the focal point was the pendant so you would think all the technicians
would be hovering around about that.

Wonder if anyone else saw it?

 

[pyramid]

Found a link to the programme which was on last night Tuesday, 17 September 2013

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/posh-pawn/4od

 

[chrono]

Biggest question:
They determined that it is natural (not a synthetic) and that it is untreated?

Secondly, I am surprised that if a stone is that dark, they still evaluated it so highly. I wonder if what was seen is extinction or tone. From the sound of it, it seems more like it is overly dark rather than extinction since it is still extremely dark from the side view. Shining strong light into a blackish stone will allow light to return back to the eye, hence it looks very pretty only then. Too much extinction or an overly dark tone is not valued much as it detracts from the beauty of the gem unless one is willing to strap a torchlight or LED light onto their forehead all the time.

Note that brilliance contrast is different from extinction. Brilliance contrast moves around as the stone is moved whilst extinction doesn't seem to move. In a dark toned stone, it is dark from every angle almost evenly throughout the stone.

 

[eastjavaman]

Phew. I finished watched it by skipping here and there and had to listen to the advertisement(3 minutes each times each section ).
The ruby is probably displayed without proper lighting which is lack of red spectrum lighting(there were some sunlight or I might have missed the black part since I skipped here and there); hence the slight blackish tone(If you check Liz Taylor's ruby is it displayed in auction pirtures with a yellow light where Red Spectrum is present in the light, else the ruby will appear black as we can see when she is wearing it on several pictures I presume in fluorescent lighting). But surprisingly clear for a ruby that size, and indication of Burmese and untreated. We all know it is very rare to have a big ruby(20ct+ Untreated, with that kind of clarity and Burmese) despite the lack of color it is still valued at~800kUSD, else if it is top color I am looking at 10x the price of that of that since 8ct is valued at US$ 4 million.
http://thejewelerblog.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/elizabeth-taylors-perfect-ruby-is-an-auction-record-breaker-was-a-christmas-gift-from-richard-burton-in-1968/