Please Describe an Old Mine cut and an Old European cut

[Cehrabehra]

… an Old Mine cut and an Old European cut to me please, as descriptively as you can, based on what you have seen and experienced, including stats if you’ve got ‘em.

I haven’t seen either up close and personal, but I am SO attracted to the look of the facets and the way these are cut, vs new cuts. I’m very impatient, I’ve been waiting for this ring for 15 years, but it is incredibly hard for me to get away from my 3 children while they’re out of school and my husband is getting his masters. I know I will not understand them fully until I can SEE them, but I would like to carry with me on that first visit, as much insight and reflection (ha!) as I can.

I can’t BEGIN to tell you how thankful I am to have found this website. Diagem and David? PLEASE respond! Johnathan? Todd, Tim? John? Bob? Mark? Everyone else? I want to hear what YOU have to say... Explain to me your experience:

Old Mine and Old European

Describe please, the fire, brilliance, and scintillation of these two stones.

Are they larger patches of light that wander through your vision, vs the distracting “look at me” specks of more modern cuts?

Describe the light return.

What does the color look like as it catches your eye? Is it a fleeting color that meets you and passes on its way? Or is it something you can invite to stay a while, enjoying the colors of the rainbow in a single prism of light?

Do you see white? Red? Blue? … Green, Yellow, Orange, or Purple?

Describe it in beamed light.
Describe it in sunlight.
Describe it in diffused light.
Describe it in low light.
Describe it in candlelight.

I know these stones cannot be judged by light tools that are geared toward RB, and to a limited extent fancies. At least not in the same ways. I suspect they would still be useful tools… you just have to consider that light lost in other directions than STRAIGHT UP, do have to be considered in light performance. People are not always looking at stones from the top. Since these are not cuts that you can purchase sight unseen, please tell me what you have seen. Use pictures, use statistics, use light images, use poetry, use subjective description – whatever you got. Let’s use this as an excuse to document this.

I know the selection I will see of these old cuts will be VASTLY different than if I were choosing an IRB. Vastly lesser in quantity as well. So please, if you will… share with me to the best of your ability, what YOU see when you look at these two specific older cuts: Old Mine and Old European.

Also – got any pictures with STATS that go with them? I’d love to learn more about them… cushions are giving me a headache with the lack of consistency and information out there. They’re the perfect breeding ground for innovation, but really they all started as OMC and OEC.

So, take me to the birthplace of the Diamond.

Tell me the story of the most beautiful stones of this era and how they performed. What was it about them that made us want to make them “better”?

What is the current status of these cuts?

Where do you get the best ones?

And for historical note – what diamond was the first “cushion” cut?