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#775672 - 09/01/12 02:57 PM
Re: My 3ct Diamond Hunt
[Re: Al.]
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Connoisseur
Registered: 02/07/11
Posts: 1445
Loc: Michigan
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It's wonderful to hear of someone loving their old cut- I know I do!
On the leakage issue, have you thought about having the stone foiled? This was the traditional method of combating leakage in these cuts and would probably increase the sparkle factor exponentially. I have worked on a couple of old cuts myself that have greatly benefited from this; the only negative is that you have to be careful about not soaking the ring the stone is set in, as it will ruin the foil. I know I have heard of this, but would you mind explain it?
_________________________
Dream in Pastel!
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#775676 - 09/01/12 03:21 PM
Re: My 3ct Diamond Hunt
[Re: ericader]
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The Florentine Diamond
Registered: 12/16/08
Posts: 5550
Loc: USA
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Yay!!!!! So happy to hear it! Antique cushions, as I've mentioned, are so rare now that I'm thrilled you're keeping it!
Some leakage, obstruction, or symmetry issues are common in old stones. Each stone will have it's quirks, some more than others. Or you might find a stone that doesn't show leakage, but maybe the facets are a little dark (some people love lots of black/white contrast, others don't.) Or the outline isn't symmetrical enough. It's a balancing act, but it makes YOUR stone that much more special because it would likely take a really long time to find another one that has the right combination of the elements you're looking for.
And each buyer has their own personal tolerances. But as you said, you just can't quantify the charm of the old stones!
so true, I was just thinking today that if something happened to my transitional, I would be so heartbroken, even though it is well insured. I would never be able to replace it with one that looks the same. Every time I wear it, I discover something else I love about it. To me it is imperfectly perfect. 
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#775692 - 09/01/12 04:48 PM
Re: My 3ct Diamond Hunt
[Re: KJMM]
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The Florentine Diamond
Registered: 12/16/08
Posts: 5550
Loc: USA
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Some info on Foiling
Foilback
Foilbacking is a gemstone surface enhancement technique where a thin sheet of, sometimes colored, metal is placed behind the gemstone (backing) in order to reflect more light, and/or color, back into the stone and then towards the viewer. This technique has been applied since at least Minoan times (2000-1600 BC) and is refered to as foiling.
Foiling
Foiling is the backing of a gemstone with a metallic or non-metallic sheet to improve its optical performance. The foil acts both a reflector as well as a coloring agent. Many jewels that survived carried diamonds and gemstones that were treated in this manner. Almost always these stones were set in silver closed backs to shield the foil from deteriorating.
Of all the surface enhancements, foiling is probably the technique which has the most allure but is hardly used anymore nowadays. In present time the technique is frowned upon as we are not accustomed to any of such treatments and with an abudance of good quality diamonds and colored gemstones available at, relative, affordable prices, there is little need for a gemstone to be treated in this manner.
As mentioned earlier, the goal of foiling is to bring out the best in a gemstone. While modern knowledge can make use of mathematics to estimate the best performance, in ancient times our ancestors needed to resort to tricks and they did a wonderful job at that. Backfoiling a gemstone with a colored and reflective sheet of metal greatly increases the optical performance of the gemstone at hand.
The back foiling of gemstones is a practice that dates back to at least Minoan times (2000-1600 BC)[3] and early written accounts of it are given by Pliny[4] in the 1st century AD. In 1568 Cellini gave a technical outline on this method with recipes on how to create several foils, but the most interesting information is probably given at the end of the chapter;[5]
” In the middle of the morse I set a diamond the facets of which were cut starwise to a point, for which Pope Julius II had given 36,000 ducats of the Camera. I set the stone quite free (a jour) between four claws, in this manner did it seem to me to make better. I had given this setting a good deal of thought, but the stone was of such exceptional beauty that it caused me much less trouble than costly stones of similar character are wont to do. True, some jewellers were of mind that it would better to tint the whole base of the stone and the back facets, but with my good results I got them to see it was much better thus. ”
From the text it can be concluded that foiling was not only done on rose cut diamonds, but on early diamond cuts with a pavilion as well (although in this particular case Cellini went against the advice of other goldsmiths and did not enhance the stone at all).
Although the high end jewelers of days gone by used foiling to enhance the beauty of a gemstone, less scrupulous men (hardly ever women) applied the technique to gemstones of inferior value to mimic other gemstones and thus committing fraud. The 1974 edition of Shipley's dictionary of gems and gemology[6] puts foiled gemstones in three categories:
Genuine foil backs: to improve the performance of a gemstone
False foil backs: to give a different color to a gemstone so to mimic another
Imitation foil backs: the same as a false foil back, but applied to glass (for example a chaton)
It is mainly due to the wide practice of the latter two that we now, sadly enough, regard foiling as fraudulent.
Besides, colored, metallic foils, other foils were applied to enhance a gemstone:
Peacock feathers
Butterfly wings
Colored silk threads[7]
Engraved metallic foils to mimic asterism and chatoyancy[8]
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#776158 - 09/04/12 09:57 AM
Re: My 3ct Diamond Hunt
[Re: KJMM]
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Mentor
Registered: 07/19/11
Posts: 1031
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