Sapphire Engagement Ring help please

[celticgemscoyne]

Hi everyone, I am new to the site and have just joined to ask for your help and expertise after reading lots of posts on here.

I have been searching all over the place for a sapphire engagement ring. I'd like quite a large ct weight aprox 2.50 or above. I've seen some beauties at Fay Cullen and have seen some very mixed reviews posted here about her.

Through all my searching I have found this one Fay Cullen ring that I keep coming back to:
http://www.faycullen.com/Antique-Engagement-Rings/9364/

I'd love to know your opinions on its quality. I think it might be "the one". What do you think?

I also like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTIQUE-ART-DECO-1ct-DIAMOND-2-45ct-SAPPHIRE-RING-1930-/230491246230?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35aa594e96

There was one listed at paraibaininternational that I really like, however the main stone is tanzanite and I just don't think its durable enough for a engagement ring. A sapphire in that setting would be pretty perfect.
http://www.paraibainternational.com/product_info.php?product=2933


I'd be delighted if you could cast your eyes over these rings and let me know what you think or if you could recomend any other site.

Thank you in advance for your help x

(I posted this initially in rocky talk and then realised there is a seperate forum for coloured stones, apologies)

 

[chrono]

Fay Cullen
Be sure to read about their return policy - there is a restocking fee for anything over $2000 and in certain cases where it is considered customized, it is non-refundable. Secondly, I would want a lab report proof that it is untreated as claimed. Thirdly, the stone does not look anywhere close to vivid in saturation. Will she like the unusual shape of the stone? The ring is very pretty but it might not be everyone's taste for an e-ring.
http://www.faycullen.com/faqs.php

Mel's Antique
Another gorgeous ring but with a few caveats. The sapphire is stated as natural but no treatment is mentioned. For all I know, it could be diffused, putting its value down to mere hundreds of dollars. I'm not sure if it is the stone or the setting but it looks crooked in the setting.

PI
I agree that tanzanite is a poor choice of stone for an -ering.

 

[celticgemscoyne]

Thank you very much for taking the time to post such a thorough reply.

I totally agree about the saturation of the stone. As for the shape, (its actually for me, my partner wants me to find the ring I'd like) I like that its a bit different and an unusual shape.

Fay Cullen is my fav but I am a bit concerned about the quality of the setting and the various mixed reviews.

Thank you again for your reply it really is very helpful as I am a complete novice to all of this.

 

[velouriaL]

Those are some very pretty rings you have picked out!

Although you can sometimes find the perfect vintage or otherwise pre-assembled setting + sapphire, the route that people here seem to have the most success with is to find the right gem first and then try to pair it with the right setting, or even have one custom made.

You can find many threads that catalog the hunt for the perfect blue sapphire. Right now, mastercutgems.com has quite a few beautiful blue sapphires from Sri Lanka (http://www.mastercutgems.com/index.php?page=view&cat=301), including a few really spectacular looking ones over 2.5 carats. There is also Jeff White, who is known for his sapphires and excellent cutting. Gemfix often has a large variety. But there are lots of other vendors that people have had success with.

For the setting, some "masters" of custom pave rings include Leon Mege, Steven Kirsch, Maytal Hannah, and Victor Canera. There also premade rings that might work with your ring available from pricescope jewelers. I don't know the ins and outs of who takes outside stones and who doesn't, so you might want to dig around on some Show Me the Bling threads and see what you like, who makes it, whether they will work with outside gems, etc.

In my opinion, the roughly ~$6500 you were looking at on the rings you linked to is a quite a bit low for a diamond-encrusted high-quality setting with a 2.5+ carat top quality sapphire. It would probably cost you quite a bit more to build such a ring from scratch. This leads me to believe that the rings you posted may not be top quality in all aspects.

This might be okay, but you have to budge somewhere, if $6.5k-ish is indeed your budget. You definitely don't want to go cheap on the setting of that type because crappy pave often creates structural hazard. Some options might be to go smaller but high quality on sapphire, go for size but know that your sapphire might not be "top," to stay blingy but go simpler for the setting (say, a halo and pave shank), go for a three stone ring with diamond but less pave, etc.

Overall, I'd say the #1 piece of advice is to look more closely on the forums, both at people's experience finding sapphires and at settings. Once you've looked more closely at settings apart from the center gem, you might have a better idea of exactly what you want.

Also, if you like the shield shape, you might get lucky. Lots of unusual shapes, such as trilliants, are less popular for engagement rings and therefore can be found at good prices.

 

[royalstarrynight]

Just as a random comment since I just had a recent discovery myself, I would go up for face up surface area and not carat weight.

I originally thought I wanted 2.5ct sapphire and up and went to an intergem this weekend only to find that my fingers are small enough for a 1.5-3 ct MAX And the 3 ct was for deeper cuts. Any larger it looked silly on me but my size is on the smaller size. It's also a matter of taste as well. It also lets you try a bunch of styles in real life as well.

The best advice I got was to try a bunch in real life to see what size and saturation you'd like. You might have done this already but I found this weekend so eye opening I thought I'd share.

Good luck in your search!

 

[michellechan2211]

The Fay Cullen ring looks really blue grey to me and is definitely not vivid. Like Chrono mentioned above, I would make the sale contingent on a lab report stating that the stone is untreated in any way.

Ebay ring: No treatment is mentioned.

Most people here would not recommend Tanzanite for an engagement ring because it isn't a hard stone.

 

[chrono]

Velouria wrote an excellent post on why it might be best to get the stone separately from the setting and also why something has to give in your budget. Depending on the cut, a 2.5 ct weight sapphire could face up big (if shallow) or small (if deep). There is no standardized cut for coloured stones. What ring size do you wear? If you plan to wear a wedding band with the e-ring, do you want it to sit flush or is a gap acceptable? Since this is for an e-ring, I would also want a ring that is well made enough else the melee might fall out from daily wear.