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where to OECs generally come from?

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eesmom

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Jun 11, 2010
Messages
247
Hello PSers, I have been reading and learning a lot from all of the posts here and wanted to ask a possibly silly question but I figured, why not?
I have been recently very enamored with OECs and wondered since it is an older cut, where do most of the stones come from? I see IG posts and stories and sometimes, the sellers have quite a number of stones that are OMC or OEC.

TIA!
 
Not a diamond expert, but... (someone correct me if I am wrong). Some OECs might be "original" OEC cuts, and pulled from vintage jewelry, etc.

However, there are now places like August Vintage that can do these style of old cuts but with modern technology and what we know to be fantastic proportions. There are other diamond houses that do these types of things.

So in conclusion it just depends on what you're looking at. Original OECs also are more commonly found in warmer colors, too.
 
Yes- there are a number of cutters who cut perfectly made new "old" style diamonds.
There's also cutters who recreate "funky" older stones- sometimes even with nicks and abrasions!!
There are some telltale signs that a diamond is actually an antique, as opposed to a re-pro....but you'd need a microscope and a lot of knowledge to be able to tell.
 
Most of the stones come from either rings or pulled apart genuine Antique jewellery. There are sellers like Victor Canera, Good Old Gold etc that sell newly cut, perfectly cut Antique Old Europeans and Antique Cushions and there are other places like India that are cutting imperfect OECs and Antique cuts as Rockdiamond has suggested. A lot of reproduction Antique copy jewellery is full of badly cut new Old/Antique cut diamonds.

Some genuine Antique cuts have chips in girdles and damage so they get polished up to be better than the original way they were cut too.
 
Rockdiamond said:
Yes- there are a number of cutters who cut perfectly made new "old" style diamonds.
There's also cutters who recreate "funky" older stones- sometimes even with nicks and abrasions!!
There are some telltale signs that a diamond is actually an antique, as opposed to a re-pro....but you'd need a microscope and a lot of knowledge to be able to tell.
Click to expand...

I think I can tell without a microscope in SOME cases. But I’ve wondered if I’m being fooled. For example, I thought flea bites on the girdle, certain cutting styles, abraded crown facets, and being able to see the “skin” of a “rough” diamond crystal on a diamond’s girdle were tell tale signs of an antique cut. Sometimes you can presume a diamond is antique because of its setting (eg antique bezeled diamonds that are in the old original setting).

However I’m very suspicious of how many very large “old cut” stones are readily available; I’ve never seen them before in such quantities. It makes me feel like there are some very good cutters out there making very good reproductions that are uncharacteristically large for antiques, and quite a few vendors selling stuff they know isn’t antique.

I also see many diamonds in antique settings that are not the type of quality that match the setting. Eg someone has replaced the original stone with an inferior one, possibly another antique possibly a modern recut.

For me, it doesn’t matter if the stone is antique or not as long as the price is fair and it looks good, but IMO original antiques have a special feel to them that most modern cutters still haven’t mastered. Food for thought.
 
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eesmom said:
where do most of the stones come from?
Click to expand...

Well, when a mommy oec and a daddy oec love each other *very much* ...

#MakeBabyOecs

Haha, sorry, I couldn’t resist!
Seriously though, in my experience, they come from pawn shops, confused flea market costume jewelery sellers, and yard sales.
 
Im also obsessed with OMC/OEC/ACC and I think you just have to ask when you find one you love. I agree they're usually warmer colors and I love that about them
 
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