Question on culet size of Old European Diamonds

[lindacat]

I was wondering about the size of the culet in the older cut stones. Is there any correlation between how big the culet is, and how old the stone is? In other words, do older stones have larger culets, and the ones that were more recent (although still old cuts) have smaller or no open culets? Or was the culet size just dependent on who was cutting the stone? Just curious if anyone has seen a correlation of any kind.

 

[Victor Canera]

Diamonds used to have open culets. Even modern brilliants before approximately the 1995-2000 time frame would have very small polished culets. I don't think you can tie in how large a culet is to the age of a diamond consistently. If you'd like to verify if an OEC diamond is really an antique vs. a modern diamond made to look like an OEC you have to look at other clues. An antique OEC will have a brutted girdle meaning the girdle won't be faceted as a modern diamond (although it could be faceted later on). Usually antique diamonds won't get very high cut grades and many times a low "Fair" grade occurs for polish or symmetry. This is because the diamonds were polished by hand not with the aid of modern machinery. An excellent polish or symmetry grade would be highly unlikely for an old diamond.

Good luck.

 

[oldminer]

I think as cutting progressed in the 1700's into the beginning of the 1900's culet size tended to diminish, but it is not an overall situation. The culet size is determined by the shape of the rough and the need to take off surface features. One might find hat statistically, an increasing tendency for smaller culets came with time and technological advances.