The Setting: Lavish Flower-Studs with Diamond-Petals and Crown-Basket
- 18K White Gold with UK Hallmark
- 16mmx12mm Front Dimensions
- Twelve (!) Extra-Slim Claw-Prongs
- High-Quality Secure Clip-Closure
- Total 1.12 carats of 28 conflict-free ideal-cut diamonds in VS (or better) and color F (or better)
- 23.69 gram (total and incl. gems)
Comment: A most remarkable pair of earrings for which the word 'stud' is probably wrong, or at least far too humble. Each piece is a work of art and together with the stones (see below) they make it to the top 5 earrings I've had the honor to see in my gem-career. The immaculate diamonds, the obsessively perfect arragement of twelve (12!!) needle thin prongs around 'only' 1.x carat of center gem is beyond what I thought was possible in details before we reach the nuclear level. Do the math: On a length of only 8mm the goldsmith has set six prongs on each side, that is one prong every one-and-a-half millimeter and still they are so thin that they take almost no space from the gem below, barely visible to the eye. I judge those prongs are no thicker that a human hair (of the stronger type). And as if that was not enough, he/she (I will get to know particular goldsmith names later), and David, added not a mundane easy diamond-halo but fourteen full sized brilliants each set with three prongs. At first sight, it is almost too much to take in. Then in side-view, you see the above structure is built upon a crown-like basket with mini-bridges connecting one diamond to the next. I fail to ID a style-époque, it is a mix of Victorian, Art Nouveaux but also with a hint of Retro.
The Stone:
- Unheated & Untreated Brazilian Aquamarine 2.41 carat
- Shape Round: 8.16x6.23x3.98 & 8.15x6.33x4.52 mm
- Cut: Mixed/Step
- Color Grade: Excellent+
- Tone: Medium 50
- Color Zoning: None
- Clarity: Free of Inclusions
- Cutting Grade: Excellent (precision cut in UK)
- Depth: 63%/71%
- Brilliancy: 90%
- Origin: Santa Maria, Brazil
Treatment: None
Certificate: IGL J83597393EN
Overall Grade: Excellent++
Comment: I must confess: when David passed me these earrings to grade and photograph, I thought I was holding paraibas, they are so shiny and intense blue! The ultra-posh and expensive setting also suggested multi-K-$$$ main stones for which a few thousand dollars in diamonds and gold do not count as extravagant accessoirs. Compare the two single shots, they are one from each, utterly identical (though one is slightly deeper than the other, it does not show). No inclusions, no window, no treatment and a color to fool a pro. The legend of Santa Maria Aquamarine at its very top. The images show them as I.R.L. and there is little to add, aside admiration. The best, and the most expensive.
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