GEM CUTS

OTHER CUTTING

Gems may also be cut in other ways that have nothing to do r shape or the number of facets. A better term in this in, stance is ngraved, because a design is formed by carving it into a gem or a shell.

Intaglio means that the carver engraves the gem, as for a signet or serial ring. In other words, the carving is below the surface of the objective of the ring originally was to let the owner stamp -to wax to close a letter or to authenticate a document, Intaglio a useful purpose. Scarabs, miniature carved beetles . he ancient Egyptians and often found in the pyramid tombs also often engraved with symbolic intaglios. Although . gem can be used for intaglio, the most common gems used the opaque gems. Diamonds, nevertheless, have been despite their hardness and fragility that make engraving extremely difficult.

One carved diamond was the Shah, given to Czar Nicholas of Russia in 1829 by a Persian prince. Because of its irregular shape, the diamond was recut and the inscriptions of the names of three Persian king who had owned the gem were lost. Another diamond, the Akbar Shah, as named after its first owner, the Great Mogul, Akbar,and Arabic inscriptions were engraved on two faces by Akbar's successor. Although it, too, was later recut, the recutting left the inscriptions intact.

Cameo is the opposite of intaglio. In a cameo, the figure or inscription is raised in low relief. The art of intaglio is older than cameo carving, but cameo carving is also an ancient skill. Known to the Persians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans, it was developed to high art in medieval Italy.

A cameo may be a stone or a shell. Especially suitable is material that occurs in bands or layers, with the resut that the figure is one color and the background another color. Stone cameos are generally onyx or sardonyx, while shell cameos use certain mollusks, such as helmet shells. Shell cameos, despite the relative softness of the shell, can be finely and exquisitely detailed.