Fancy Shaped Cuts

[swingirl]

Does anyone know when stone cutters started cutting the fancy shapes? Ovals, Emeralds, Pears?

When I look a antique jewelry I wonder about dating a piece by the stone shape. I understand all the info about OEC and Mine Cuts but when did they start doing the fancies?

 

[swingirl]

Anyone?

 

[neatfreak]

What fancies are you talking about specifically? Cushions, emeralds, asschers, pears, etc. have been cut for awhile. Cushions and pears often were cut with the same large culet, etc. that old mine cuts were.

 

[neatfreak]

Here''s some basic history:

http://www.khulsey.com/jewelry/diamond_cutting_history.html

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/diamonds/royal.html

 

[dennyr]

If you are defining fancy shape as any diamond shape other than the round brilliant, the answer to your question about when they started cutting fancies depends on what shape you are talking about. Some shapes as the cushion, oval, emerald, and Asscher are hundreds of years old. There are hundreds of different diamond shapes and some of the branded shapes are new in the last few years. In fact, we talked to some cutters at a diamond trade show a few weeks ago and they showed us new shapes that have not even been revealed to the public yet.

Were you inquiring about a particular shape or just fancies in general?

 

[swingirl]

Thank you, Neatfreak, for the links. And thank you dannyr.

From the links it looks like the pear shape has been around awhile. What about the marquis? When I see a piece of jewelry that has a marquis and they are calling it "antique" I get suspicious if I can safely assume they weren''t cutting marquis in 1908.

So my question was just about when they started cutting pears and marquis for the general market and using them in jewelry.

 

[oldminer]

I have owned several pear and marquise shapes which were certainly cut before 1900. They hardly would meet today''s demanding specifications for appearance or cut quality, but they can be very distinctive and different from modern cuts. Most of the finer ones end up getting recut to improve their looks and performance.