Before cutting: the point cut (1300s)
For most of history diamonds were worn uncut, valued for hardness rather than sparkle. The first 'cut' — the point cut of the 14th century — simply polished the natural octahedral crystal faces. European cutters in Venice and later Bruges began grinding diamonds with diamond dust, the only material hard enough to do it, a technique India's cutters had known for centuries.
Table and rose cuts (1400s–1600s)
The table cut, from the mid-1400s, ground the top point off the octahedron to create a flat 'table' facet — the first cut that let light into the stone. The rose cut followed in the 1500s: a flat base with a dome of triangular facets rising to a point, like a rosebud. Rose cuts glow softly rather than sparkle, and they remain in production today for vintage-style jewelry.
Old mine and old European cuts (1700s–1800s)
Brazilian diamond discoveries in the 1720s, and later the South African rushes of the 1870s, gave cutters enough rough to experiment. The old mine cut — a cushioned square with a high crown, small table and large culet — was the 18th century's standard, cut by eye and candlelight, which is exactly the light it flatters. The round old European cut refined it in the 1800s once steam-driven bruting machines could make truly round outlines.
Antique cuts are enjoying a genuine revival: their chunky, broad-flash facets read as romantic and distinctive next to the white-hot uniformity of modern stones.
1919: Tolkowsky and the modern round brilliant
In 1919 Marcel Tolkowsky, an engineering student from a Belgian diamond family, published 'Diamond Design' — the first mathematical analysis of how facet angles control light return. His calculated proportions (a crown angle near 34.5°, pavilion near 40.75°) became the blueprint for the modern 57-facet round brilliant cut, which maximizes the balance of brilliance (white light) and fire (rainbow flashes).
Virtually every round diamond cut today descends from Tolkowsky's math, refined by a century of ray-tracing research and grading standards like GIA's cut scale, introduced in 2005.
The modern family of fancy shapes
The 20th century translated brilliant faceting onto other outlines: the marquise and pear (much older outlines, re-faceted as brilliants), the oval (Lazare Kaplan, 1957), the princess cut (1980s) and the radiant (Henry Grossbard, 1977), which brought brilliant sparkle to a step-cut silhouette. The emerald cut and Asscher (Joseph Asscher, 1902) kept the older step-cut tradition alive — long, mirror-like facets that prize clarity over sparkle.
Every shape in our 3D studio carries this lineage: choose a round brilliant for maximum light, a step cut for Art-Deco glass-like elegance, or an antique-inspired cushion for old-world character.