If not grandma’s, then some other diamond you’ve seen; and perhaps you’ve wondered why it was there. The answer is simple; and I first heard it in a story told by a much older acquaintance. In the early 1920s he was about 12 years old; and one day his father brought him along to “help” him buy his mother a diamond ring at a jeweler in his home town, Cincinnati. The jeweler showed his father several diamonds and one of them was unique by virtue of what appeared to be a hole in its center. When the youth asked about the “hole”, the jeweler replied that there was no hole, that he was looking through the diamond’s culet and its purpose was to let light into the diamond. Apparently this answer satisfied both the youth and his father as the diamond was purchased and became a treasured family heirloom. The youth of that time became a man, a father, a grandfather, a great grandfather and passed away about fifteen years ago; and throughout the several years I knew him, I never felt the need to give him the rest of the answer about the hole in his mother’s diamond. Here it is now.
It’s true that the diamond’s culet, the flat cut at the diamond’s pointed bottom, was so large in order to let light into it. Without it, given the diamond’s other poor proportions, it would have looked dark and lacked brilliance. In the trade, such diamonds are often called “nail-heads”. Cut to better proportions, the diamond would have had a much smaller, perhaps invisible, culet and it would have been brighter; but it would have weighed less, and weight sells. Indeed, weight was, and is, so obviously important to the average diamond buyer that for more than a century most diamond cutters have been paid for the weight they retain from the rough while cutting and polishing a diamond. Let beauty take the hindmost! Fancy diamond cuts; that is, shapes other than the round brilliant cut? Usually they have originated out of a desire to save weight from the rough.
Take the marquise for example. It was developed in 18th century France (to save weight) and originally named the “navette”. Navette, however, just had no marketing pizzaz; so when Louis XV gave one to his mistress, the French jewelers seized on the opportunity. The humble navette became the prestigious “marquise”, a name associated with a noble rank less than a duke but greater than a count. Sales of diamond navettes, oops, make that diamond marquise, to the courtiers at Versailles soared! Don’t chuckle over that too quickly. In our own time a square, brilliant cut diamond (again developed as a way to save the rough’s weight when cutting it) has been very successfully marketed as the “princess cut”; and everyone knows a princess is more important than a marquise.
It’s more brilliant than and sparkles more than the older square cut diamonds that preceded it; and since it is less wasteful to cut than an ideally proportioned round, brilliant cut diamond, it is usually considerably cheaper than a round brilliant cut of exactly the same weight, color and clarity. Nothing is free, however; the princess cut sacrifices brilliance and the appearance of size for its weight. Yes, even though you may find princess cuts out there with laboratory reports that describe their cutting as “Ideal”; none of them is as brilliant as the best cut round diamond. Indeed, at this writing the very most beautifully cut princess cuts generally return only 62% of the light that enters them to the viewer’s eyes. By contrast, a round brilliant cut diamond cut to the very highest standards that may currently be achieved returns a bit more than 98%. This is tremendously important as light performance is the heart and soul of the diamond “shine” beloved by diamond fanciers. Don’t be confused by the term “ideal”. It is relative to the style of the cut and cannot be meaningfully used to compare the light performance of two different diamond cutting plans. My word of advice on buying a diamond? Don’t buy one without looking at it; I won’t. Oh! If you have grandma’s diamond and you don’t like the “hole” in it, bring it in and we’ll re-cut it for maximum beauty.
There are square and modified square shapes on the market that have more sparkle than a princess cut; so if it’s a square you must have, come see us. We’ll lead you to brilliance brilliantly. In diamonds, cutting equates directly to beauty; and we insist on diamonds cut for beauty. Think about that. Diamond color and clarity - rarity factors that affect price - can seldom be seen in any meaningful sense outside of the laboratory; while perfection in cut is immediately obvious to everyone. There is no choice. If you want to pay her the greatest compliment and words fail you, there is no better way to say, “I love you,” than with a gift of perfect beauty. She’ll love and treasure it forever! We’re Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers, an uncommon jeweler. Check us out on line at hurstsberwynjewelers.com; then phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment that will answer your desires perfectly.
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