2023-06-25 11:00:00
While Saint Éloi is generally considered the patron saint of goldsmiths, jewelers owe a proud debt to Marie de Bourgogne, Charles V’s grandmother. Contemporary of the Belgian Louis de Berken, inventor of a tool for shaping diamonds, the one who was “the best party in Europe” received the first engagement ring in history from Archduke Maximilian of Austria, in 1477 This fruitful marriage, although celebrated by proxy, redefines geopolitical balances for two centuries and will inaugurate, for even longer, the lucrative diamond business! A market which, let us concede, was not widely popularized until much later, in the 1950s, thanks to the pharaonic advertising investments of De Beers. Meanwhile, discovering the usefulness and importance of cutting, European diamond dealers never stopped perfecting their techniques. In the 17th century, the rose cut appeared. The diamonds are then reduced to three triangular facets or more, in multiples of 6, up to 24. The Venetian Vincenzo Peruzzi is the first to cut a diamond with 58 facets. But it was only in 1919 that the mathematician Marcel Tolkowsky developed the brilliant. He discovers the ideal proportions which optimize the brilliance of the stone and publishes them in a collection, Diamond Design : 57 facets will be enough to create an absolutely perfect shape. From now on, to distinguish an old cut from a modern one, it suffices to look at the center of the diamond. If it has a small round at the bottom of its head, it is an old cut with 58 facets!
Details, details. The so-called fancy cuts – pear, cushion, square, oval, heart, marquise, Asscher, etc. – appeared shortly afterwards. Not being standardized, unlike gloss, each has its own dimensions and proportions. They thus offer those who work with them the possibility of leaving their mark. A godsend for the big names in Place Vendôme who are developing “in-house” sizes, for which they have exclusive use.
Mellerio, the oldest jeweler in Paris created in 1613, launched in 2005 an unprecedented precious stone cut, in the shape of an oval inscribed in an ellipse. This new patented shape has the same number of facets as a brilliant, but its center of gravity is shifted so as not to lose any of the stone’s brilliance and pays homage to the Beau Sancy, a white diamond weighing 34.98 carats, which was the property of Queen Marie de Medici.
Mini Malle long necklace, Bravery Chapter II high jewelry collection on which is mounted an LV Monogram Star diamond with 53 facets, Louis Vuitton.
Pearl necklace studded with Refined Rebellion diamonds in a pointed shape with 82 facets, Tasaki.
Tiffany True Diamond Ring, Tiffany & Co.
Empress-cut diamond with 88 facets, by Chaumet.
Mellerio cut diamond with 57 facets mounted on a Mellerio Cut necklace.
Dior box of 8 white diamonds of 8.88 carats each and of 8 different sizes (on the top row then on the bottom row, from left to right): round brilliant, cushion, pear, Asscher, marquise, emerald, oval, square.
Surprise effect. The trend for signature sizes only really developed a few years later, when the giants of the sector, in full conquest of market share, sought to distinguish themselves from the “in-room” jewelers who still monopolize more than 70 % of the market. Indeed, with the naked eye, it is difficult to distinguish a solitaire from a boutique on Place Vendôme from one sold by an artisan. However, at equal quality, the first will be 30 to 40% more expensive. As a result, the whole challenge for renowned jewelers is to offer settings or specific shapes that signify the origin of the stone at first glance while creating a surprise effect. Immediately recognizable with its 53 facets with pointed ends, the LV Monogram Star cut is part of this approach, taking up the starry monogram flower imagined by Georges-Louis Vuitton in 1896. For its part, the Chaumet house claims the only diamond cut to combine a hexagonal shape, 88 facets and a star pavilion. Its Empress cut, a subtle echo of the imperial motif of the bee that irrigates the collections, would be endowed with a particular brilliance and a brilliance superior to the absolute benchmark on the market, the brilliant cut.
The development of a signature shape is also an opportunity to recall the virtuosity of its diamond know-how, a practice rarely mastered in-house. It is probably with this in mind that the Tasaki house, more renowned for the pearls it cultivates on its farm near Nagasaki, developed the Refined Rebellion size. A pointed shape with 82 facets having the particularity of presenting the cylinder head of the diamonds. The jeweler does not trumpet it, but he is the only Japanese holder of the privileged status of sightholder with the diamond group De Beers Group/DTC. This coveted status gives it the right to source and select the most remarkable rough stones and diamonds directly from the group, in order to cut them in its workshops.
In another register, the Dior house, anxious to highlight the protective power of minerals, relies on symbolic arithmetic. After celebrating the reopening of the avenue Montaigne boutique in 2022 with an 88.88-carat yellow diamond, a nod to the house founder’s favorite number, it unveils a set of eight white diamonds of 8.88. carats, cut in rough stones from Botswana. These eight talismans, exclusively sold in boxes, are waiting for their (fortunate) numerology enthusiasts!
Laziz Hamani – www.piotrstoklosa.com – SP (X5)
#Diamonds #size #matters