Fancy Cuts

Beyond the ten cuts everyone knows lies a far older and stranger world: the forms the brilliant grew out of, the flat-backed roses of the candlelit centuries, the disciplined little cuts that frame a centre stone, and a handful of shapes invented for their own sake. Together they are the fancy cuts — the long genealogy and the wide family of the diamond.

Ancestors of the modern brilliant

The round brilliant did not arrive whole; it was reasoned toward, cut by cut, across centuries. The line runs from the early Table and Tablet cuts — little more than a polished window onto the crystal — through the Mazarin and Peruzzi cuts that first multiplied the facets and began to coax out fire. The Old Mine and Old European cuts, with their high crowns, small tables and chunky facets, are the brilliant’s immediate forebears, made by candlelight and still beloved in antique jewellery. The thread closes with Tolkowsky’s own earlier brilliant and, at last, the Modern Brilliant — the destination all the rest were travelling toward.

Brilliant variations

Once the brilliant was settled, cutters began to elaborate it. Forms such as the Jubilee, the King and the Magna cuts, or the many-faceted Royal 144, add or rearrange facets in pursuit of still greater brilliance — variations on a theme already near perfection.

Rose cuts

Older than the brilliant and entirely its own idea, the rose cut has a flat base and a dome of triangular facets rising to a point, like an opening bud. It throws a soft, romantic glow rather than sharp fire — the look of diamonds before electric light. The family is wide, from the Dutch (Holland) Rose and the Antwerp Rose to simpler three- and six-facet roses and the elongated boat- and pear-shaped versions. Long out of fashion, the rose cut has lately returned for exactly the quiet, antique character that once retired it.

Cuts for small diamonds

Not every diamond is meant to be the centre. A whole discipline exists for the small stones that line a shoulder, pavé a band or accent a setting. The Single and Swiss cuts are simplified brilliants with fewer facets, ideal at tiny sizes; the French and square cuts bring a period geometry. Most useful of all are the Baguette and Tapered Baguette — clean, rectangular step cuts that sit shoulder to shoulder in a row — alongside the Trapeze, Lozenge and Triangle cuts shaped to flank a larger stone exactly.

Step cuts

The step cut takes a different philosophy entirely: long, parallel facets cut in tiers, like a flight of stairs descending to the culet. Rather than scattering light into fire, it produces broad, mirror-like flashes and a clean, architectural calm. The emerald cut is its most famous member; the family also takes in the square Carré, the step-cut Hexagon and the baguette — the cuts that prize line and clarity over sparkle.

Miscellaneous and flower cuts

A final group answers to no single tradition. The triangular Trilliant, the Flanders, the hybrid Barion, the bead-like Rondelle and the faceted teardrop Briolette each exist for a particular effect or setting. Newer still are the flower cuts — the Fire Rose, Sunflower, Zinnia, Marigold and Dahlia — modern designs whose facets are arranged into blooming, petalled patterns, proof that the diamond can still be cut into whatever the mind imagines.