GEM CUTS

The cut developed in India was relatively simple, employing eight facets and a flat top or table and bottom. More facets were v added, increasing the brilliancy and fire of the stone. The close, for example, used 24 facets. Other forms followed, until faceted diamonds and other gems were common and the vogue.

The way and shape in which a diamond or any other gem is cut :?end basically on its rough shape, color, clarity, and size. The popular cut to day is the brilliant cut, especially for diamonds, and this cut will be used to illustrate what you should know about v of faceted stones.

According to tradition, Cardinal Mazarin, a seventeenth-century statesman, originated the brilliant cut to try to revive the - diamond-cutting industry. To publicize the cut, he had 12 diamonds in the French crown cut in this style. These diamonds known as the 12 Mazarins, disappeared during the French on, and only a few were recovered later.

Looked at from the side, a round brilliant cut diamond resembles, and of squat ice cream cone (see Diagram 1). The top third or ice cream part is the crown, with the flat facet at the very top knows able the table. Slanting outward from the table are small facets as star facets. The facets below them that meet the edge of the cone or girdle in a point are bezelfacets. The bezel is the slanting edge above the cone, and above the girdle where the setting, pronged otherwise, grips the stone. The rest of the facets are know as the upper girdle facets.

The girdle is the edge where the crown meets the cone and is the part where the gem is set into the setting. The cone, or bottom two-thirds of the stone, is the pavilion or culasse. The lower girdle facets match the upper girdle facets, while the pavilion facets meet the point of the bezel facets. The point, or very bottom, of the is the cone culet or apex.

All the proportions have to be very exact. When they are, the cut is called an ideal cut. What does this mean?
First of all, such a cut means that the diamond has the maximum brilliance, scintillation, and fire, with the facets reflecting and bouncing back the light.