On the crown of a diamond, the star, kite and upper girdle facets surround the diamond’s table, while lower girdle and pavilion facets stretch from the diamond’s girdle down to the culet. Gemologists have named the facets so that they can be very specific in their work.

Today’s round brilliant cut diamonds have 58 facets, if they have a culet, and 57 facets without a culet.

This means that the facets on any of its sides are exactly similar to the facets facing them across the diamond’s axis. Symmetry – The best diamonds are perfectly symmetrical. His stunningly beautiful, new diamond cut became known as the round brilliant cut, because it maximized the brilliance, fire and sparkle of every diamond crystal. Marcel Tolkowsky then mathematically redesigned every aspect of the old European cut. Tolkowsky carefully calculated how much white light old European cut diamonds reflected and evaluated the fire that appeared as the white light was dispersed in all the colours of the rainbow. The old European cut set the stage for the round brilliant cut that we prize today.Īs the 20th century dawned, jewellers began using more precise saws and state-of-the-art lathes as they shaped diamonds and a Polish engineer named Marcel Tolkowsky began to systematically study the old European cut. The Old European cut gave diamonds 58 facets, as well as a smaller table, larger culet and more depth than their earlier counterparts. Rosette-cut diamonds with triangular facets arranged in a radiating pattern were introduced to the diamond market in Antwerp, while Peruzzi-cut diamonds with 33 facets on their crown became popular in Italy.Įach of these early diamond cuts contributed to the development of the old European cut in the 1800s. In the 16th and 17th centuries, jewellers experimented with adding additional facets to diamonds. During these years, a Flemish diamond polisher named Lodewyk van Bercken stressed the importance of each gemstone being absolutely symmetrical.

They began to saw off a portion of the octahedron to form a flat table on the top of the gem, as well as added a culet to the bottom point of the gem to prevent it from cracking. Jewellers worked to improve the point cut over the next decades.

Diamond dimensions 260