A Garnet Dinner ring featuring a Sprirt Sun cut Garnet

A 9ct yellow gold Garnet Dinner ring featuring a "Sprirt Sun" cut Garnet, bezel set and surrounded by fourteen "Sprirt Sun" Cut Garnets, claw set, and surrounded by a further twenty "Spirit Sun" cut Garnets claw set in a 2.75 - 2.1. mm half round shank, test as 9ct. Valuation states Circa 1960s but we will call this "Estate" given the the Spirit Sun cut was developed in the 80s.

Read more about the Sprit Sun cut below. There is a scarcity of jewellery with the "Sprirt Sun" Garnets in Australia, This cut is quite unusual.

About the Spirit Sun cut:

The Spirit Sun was researched and developed in the early 1980s by Dr. Ulrich Freiesleben, based on a patented design from the early 1960s of master gem cutter Bernd Munsteiner. The Spirit Sun and its sister cut, the Context Cut, are the first two diamond cuts to the designed by a colored stone lapidary. Spirit Sun is a round cut with only a pavilion and a crown. It is somewhat like a shallow pyramid on top of a pyramid. It has a rounded girdle and 16 equal upper facets and 16 equal lower facets that radiate in a sun-ray fashion .from the center of the stone, alternating against one another, to create a unique sparkle. With its large facets and unique design, the cut is 15 to 17 percent more reflective than the traditional round brilliant cut.

Because of its different faceting, this minimalist design can be mounted as a round, although a slightly different mounting is needed. The Spirit Sun can only be fashioned from one perfect octahedron rough. Therefore, there is higher waste than when two diamonds are cut from one piece of rough. If you start with a 2-carat rough octahedron, for example, the yield will be approximately .65 Spirit Sun but with the same diameter as a .75-carat round. It is difficult to find rough in the quality and sizes needed for Spirit Sun, so production is limited.

Because of the nature of the rough used, the Spirit Sun is more expensive (about 30 percent) than traditional cuts of the same size and weight. It is not sold by the carat, but by the individual stone.