Diamonds

Diamonds, by nature of their unique characteristics, can be evaluated much more precisely than other gems. Their extreme hardness allows ...
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This article gives an overview of the history of diamond cutting. For detailed descriptions of the different diamond cuts see ...
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Adamantine is the term used to describe the luster exhibited by diamonds and gems with a Refractive Index of 1.9 - 2.5. The root word adamant ...
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Like many historical diamonds, the Agra’s saga is a familiar combination of fact and legend, leaving the reader with the challenging ...
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Unfortunately, the history of famous diamonds is not without its list of casualties. In this category are those magnificent stones that somehow ...
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 The term allochromatic is used in reference to gem materials that derive their color from elements that are not an ...
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This stone enjoys the distinction of being the twelfth largest “perfect” diamond in the world. Named for a military man of ...
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ARCOTS – A Pair of Diamonds These two exceptionally beautiful pear-shaped diamonds began their travels from the Nawab of Arcot ...
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In 1902 the Dutch diamond cutter Joseph Asscher developed the cut that would carry his name on into the future ...
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The baguette cut represents an elongated, rectangular table cut. The modern version, as in the ring on the right, was (re)introduced ...
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One could rightfully call this stone the Rodney Dangerfield of diamonds. Almost from the moment of its discovery, this diamond has ...
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This diamond's name is taken from its first recorded French owner, Nicolas Harlay de Sancy, a fancier of fine gems who ...
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Diamonds as We Know Them When we think of a diamond, most of us will form an image in our ...
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Edwardian Garland Motif Pendant Suspending a Briolette Cut Diamond. Briolettes are drop shaped, multi faceted stones. They are unique in ...
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To paraphrase Charles Dickens, this is a tale of two diamonds. Purportedly cut from the same stone that produced the Hope Diamond, ...
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Bruting is a process in diamond cutting that establishes the girdle outline. Once the height and width of the diamond are determined, it is ...
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Carbon is a chemical element on the periodic table. Carbon is the 15th most abundant element in the earth's crust ...
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DefinitionThe ability of a material to split along a certain plane or planes with weak atomic bonding. A crystal structure ...
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If ever fate has lent a hand in determining the course of a diamond's story, it is this one. Just a ...
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It was the late afternoon of January 25, 1905. Employees at the Premier Diamond Mine in the British African colony ...
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Cushion cut is a sexy and romantic name for a squarish ("cushionesque") antique brilliant-cut diamond, sometimes referred to as an ...
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Darya-ye-Noor Diamond. Darya-ye-Noor, translating “river of light” or “sea of light”, is the product of an undocumented – but what ...
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Diamonds are valued for their incredible brilliance and hardness. Diamonds are chemically pure carbon, identical to the graphite used for ...
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Diamond CutsMain Article  Gems & Gemology: The Quarterly Journal of the Gemological Institute of America Diamond Cutting & Grading: Summer 1936, ...
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The Dresden Green Diamond in its Setting. Labeled as the greatest example of a naturally green colored diamond, the Dresden Green ...
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The Emerald Cut is a rectangular step cut design which means it has horizontal facets which differ in angles of ...
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Although these two diamonds are often spoken about in the same breath, no two stones could be more different – ...
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Believed to be of Brazilian origin, this much-traveled diamond has not only changed hands many times, it’s also one of the few ...
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Diamonds cut in the later 19th and early 20th-century cutting houses are called 'Old European Cuts', a term which indicates ...
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June 30, 1893, appeared to be just another day at the Jagersfontein Mine in South Africa until a worker, performing ...
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Definition A facet is a flat, planar surface ground onto a gemstone or diamond. Facets can be produced in many shapes and sizes ...
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Synthetic Rutile Showing a High Amount of Dispersion. Image Courtesy of Jeffrey HuntA popular term used to describe the flashes ...
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Studying the history of this diamond is an exercise that will challenge even the most talented detective. Almost everything about this diamond’s ...
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Art Deco French-Cut Diamond Straightline Bracelet.The term "French Cut" does not refer to the country of origin, rather It refers ...
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Gadolinium Gallium Garnet. A synthetic gemstone used as an early diamond substitute. GGG is manufactured by the Czochralski method and ...
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Crown, Girdle, PavilionThe band on a faceted stone, around the widest circumference, which creates the separation of the crown and ...
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If you record size as the number one trait in judging the importance of a diamond then this stone would top your ...
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This is the kind of story that would make a great Indiana Jones movie – solving the mystery of the ...
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If ever there was a famous diamond named for a certified scoundrel, it’s the Hastings Diamond. Using this gem as a tool ...
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Heart-Shaped Diamonds.Main Article   ...
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This is the story of a diamond whose beginnings and early history are unknown, a casualty of lost or poor documentation. It ...
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Thievery, royalty, revolution, gambling, eccentricity, mystery and curses are all part of the spectacular and storied past that is the ...
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It seems each famous diamond has some kind of mystery attached to it, usually involving the location of its discovery, the identity ...
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HPHT treatment stands for high pressure - high-temperature treatment. This method of diamond enhancement, invented in the late 1960's, started to be applied commercially ...
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Like many of its contemporaries, the Idol’s Eye diamond possesses an early history that combines a rich mixture of legend, myth, mystery, ...
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Kazanjian Red Diamond.©Tino Hammid, Los AngelesThis stone belongs to an extremely small – and select - group of diamonds. It ...
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The Fabled Koh-i-Noor Diamond Like other famous gems, the Koh-i-Noor diamond has its share of mystery, intrigue, and curses attached to its ...
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Gemstones that are produced by man are generally termed "laboratory grown". These can be synthetics or other inorganic minerals that have no ...
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Laser Drilled Diamond. The Drill Channels you See are Not All Individual Channels, for the Most Part, They are Reflections.Image ...
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Louis II de Bourbon - aka le Grand Condé If there was an award for the most gaps in a ...
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A lozenge-shaped diamond is one that is rhomboid in outline. This geometric outline is also known as "diamond" shaped, but ...
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Diamond Macle.Macle is a gemological term referring to triangular shaped twinned crystals of diamond rough. Macles are usually quite flat but are ...
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The Marquise Cut (a.k.a. the Navette Cut after the Latin 'navalis', meaning boat-shaped) can be traced back to Paris around ...
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This diamond story is an unusual one. In most instances, a name is attached to one or perhaps two diamonds but in ...
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The term melée is used to indicate very small cut stones, usually used as side stones around a bigger center ...
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Owners of this stone ranged from the tenacious to the hapless, the romantic to the cunning. This diamond helped persuade a Queen ...
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"Mounting on moor" refers to the tinting of diamonds on the pavilion to create a more uniform color and to hide dark ...
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Around the Same Time, Diamond Cutting Began in Europe the Indians Started Fashioning Diamonds. Who Influenced Who Here Isn't Clear ...
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A Naif is the outer surface of an unpolished and uncut diamond. When cutting a diamond a small bit of this ...
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This particular stone could be the reason for the cliché “diamond in the rough.” During its early history, this stone ...
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A natural is a bit of the naif or outer skin of a diamond that remains after cutting and polishing. A natural on ...
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Navette is another term to describe a marquise shaped gemstone or jewelry contour. Pointed at both ends with equally curved sides, the ...
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Perhaps there is no famous diamond with a more disputed history than that of the Orlov. Through the passage of ...
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Oval Diamond Three Stone Ring.Main Article   ...
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Example of a Paste Sapphire Imitation. Notice the Rounded Facet Edges Which Tell Us the Stone Wasn't Cut, but Cast ...
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Paste jewelry is costume jewelry, mainly set with colored and/or colorless glass. During the eighteenth century with the vogue for faceted gems and diamonds, the demand ...
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Crown, Girdle, Pavilion.The pavilion is the part of a gemstone below the girdle ...
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Pear-shape refers to the shape of a faceted gemstone that comes to a point at one end and is rounded at the opposite ...
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It is a diamond not as well known as its contemporaries. It is somewhat of an anomaly, for through its rich French ...
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With apologies to Charles Dickens, this diamond’s story could be entitled the “Tale of Two Diamonds” for its history diverges ...
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Pique is a technique in which gold or silver is inlaid in tortoiseshell and sometimes ivory or mother-of-pearl. Another meaning is the French word for an inclusion in a diamond. Victorian Pique Brooch ...
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Natural PointsA Natural Octahedronby Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0 Diamonds crystallize in various forms of which the octahedral and dodecahedral ...
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Being one of the more modern diamond cuts the Princess Cut is often indicated as being a square brilliant but this is ...
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As diamonds go this one is pretty impressive, not only because of its size but because of its renowned quality ...
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Radiant-Cut Diamond.Main Article   ...
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This magnificent gem has generated enough fodder to churn out a series of pulp fiction novels. Its travel through history is intertwined ...
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Rhinestone is the name given to rock crystal which is faceted to imitate diamond. It is also a name for ...
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Rose-Cut Diamonds: Their Beauty and AllureEarly "diamond cuts" were essentially diamonds altered with only minor changes and a light polishing before being ...
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Rosettes are floral depictions built up out of several diamonds. They were used to make the most out of small ...
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Sancy Diamond - Part of the Crown Jewels of France on Display at the Louvre.Diamonds tend to be described in such ...
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Scintillation is the term that describes the flashes of light reflected off the facets of a gemstone as it moves. Victorian Cluster Ring with ...
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Imagine a diamond where the reader is not faced with the challenge of trying to separate fact from fiction when researching ...
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By any gemological standard, the Shah Jahan Table-Cut Diamond is one impressive stone. Like many of its contemporaries, this diamond has gone ...
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The term shield cut, as suggested by Tillander, indicates all historical triangular cuts. The basic blueprint comes from half an ...
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Old Single Cut An Old Single Cut; a Square Table Cut with Faceted Corners.The Old Single Cut is a variation ...
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Specific Gravity is the ratio of the weight of a substance to the weight of an equal volume of water ...
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Swiss cut diamonds are the late 19th-century predecessor to the 20th century Single Cut. Their crowns are built up out of a table facet, ...
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Video Presentation on Diamond SynthesisGems & Gemology: The Quarterly Journal of the Gemological Institute of America. Synthetic Diamond: March-April 1935, Synthetic ...
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Synthetic gemstones are artificially created gemstones that have the same chemical build up as their natural counterparts. They therefore harbour the same ...
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The term 'table cut' is used to indicate all types of cuts that have a table facet. Cuts that fall ...
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The Crown is Comprised of the Table, Main, Star and Girdle Facets.The table is the largest facet on the crown of a gemstone. This horizontal ...
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68.09 ct. Taylor-Burton Diamond, Suspended from an Oscar Heyman & Bros. Necklace. Currently Owned by Mouawad. This diamond is a stone whose ...
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Growth process in which a twin crystal is produced. Often seen as fine parallel lines ...
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The Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond.Image Courtesy of Christie's Images, 2008 It’s that rare diamond that could match its color to the blue-blood of its ...
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Yttrium Aluminum Garnet - YAG ...
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