Antike Diamanten

The enduring romance of antique diamonds.

Old cuts hold the record of the cutter: a high crown, an open culet, an outline resolved stone by stone. Their history is a series of overlapping traditions.

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A way of seeing

Each historic cut answers a different question about light.

The table cut kept close to the crystal. Rose cuts spread light over a low dome. Old Mine and old European cuts developed the deeper proportions that led toward the modern brilliant.

Cut history

From polished crystal to old European cut.

Before named cuts

Polished crystals

Early cutting preserved much of a diamond’s natural form while making its faces clearer to the eye.

15th century onward

Table cut

Removing a point from an octahedral crystal created a broad, flat table and a deliberate new plane of light.

16th and 17th centuries

Rose cut

A flat base and a domed crown of triangular facets gave rose cuts their low, luminous profile.

16th to 18th centuries

Mughal courts

Diamonds appeared with gold, enamel, emerald, ruby and pearl in a rich courtly language.

18th and 19th centuries

Old Mine cut

Soft cushion outlines, high crowns, small tables and generous open culets became familiar features of this hand-cut family.

Late 19th and early 20th centuries

Old European cut

Improved bruting made rounder outlines practical, bringing the brilliant pattern into a distinctly historic round form.

Across the centuries

Three jewels, three ways of cutting.

Table-cut diamond ring European, 16th century. Walters Art Museum, 44.313. Image via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Object record

Rose-cut diamond armlet Maharashtrian bridal armlet, 19th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 15.95.45. Public Domain. Object record

Orlov Diamond In the Imperial Sceptre. Photograph: Elkan Wijnberg, via Wikimedia Commons. Image record and licence

Point and table

From crystal to cut.

Point cuts followed the natural faces of an octahedral crystal, letting polishing clarify a form that was already there. The table cut made a more visible intervention. A cutter removed a point and created a flat top facet, while keeping the diamond close to its rough shape. The sixteenth-century ring above shows the result: a clear, broad table held high in a gold bezel. The facets and the setting work together, giving the diamond a presence quite different from a modern brilliant.

Rose and Mughal traditions

The many forms of the rose cut.

Rose cuts have a flat base and a domed crown of triangular facets. Their shallow form can give a stone a generous outline for its weight. The nineteenth-century armlet above places a rose-cut diamond among rubies, a later example of a long-lived cutting tradition. Mughal-cut diamonds take other distinctive forms, often with a broad, irregular base, shallow facets above and bands of facets around the sides. The Orlov, shown in the Imperial Sceptre, is a famous example associated with this Indian cutting tradition. These forms reflect close attention to the original crystal.

Old Mine to old European

A deeper kind of brilliance.

Old Mine cuts, common from the eighteenth into the nineteenth century, usually take a soft cushion outline. A high crown, small table, deep pavilion and generous open culet create a broad, individual facet pattern. They were cut by hand, and each rough stone asked for its own compromise between weight, shape and light. In the late nineteenth century, improved bruting made a more regular round outline practical. The old European cut carried that new control into a high-crowned, small-tabled round form, often with an open culet still visible at its base. It is an ancestor of the modern round brilliant, yet its proportions retain a distinct historic character.

Further reading: GIA on early table and rose cuts GIA on vintage diamond cuts The Met on the rose-cut armlet Journal of Gemmology on Mughal cuts

Looking closely.

An open culet is a facet at the base of a diamond. Its presence alone does not establish age, and every stone needs to be seen on its own terms.

Journal

The antique diamond journal.

Practical reading on old cuts, their proportions and the questions worth asking before choosing one.

Read the diamond guides

2026

The enduring romance of antique diamonds.

Looking for a particular old cut?

Each historic cut answers a different question about light.

From polished crystal to old European cut.

Polished crystals

Table cut

Rose cut

Mughal courts

Old Mine cut

Old European cut

Three jewels, three ways of cutting.

From crystal to cut.

The many forms of the rose cut.

A deeper kind of brilliance.

Looking closely.

The antique diamond journal.

Why an Antique Diamond Goes Dark When You Tilt It

Two Three-Carat Old Mine Cushions: A Side-by-Side Comparison

High Crowns in Old Mine Cut Diamonds: How to Read the Profile

Asymmetry in Old Mine Cut Diamonds: Flaw or Character?

Should You Recut an Old Mine Cut Diamond or Preserve It?

Old Mine Cut Face-Up Size vs Carat Weight: What Actually Looks Larger?

What Does an Open Culet Mean in an Antique Diamond?

Why Antique Diamonds Return Light Differently

Antique Gemstones: Provenance, Condition and Documentation

Antique Diamonds and Gemstones: What to Inspect

Old Mine Cushion Diamonds: Shape, Facets and Face-Up Character

Old Mine Divine, Part 1: How the Cushion Brilliant Evolved

The Old Mine Cut: A Short Technical History

The Tiffany Setting: What Six Prongs Changed

Buying an Antique Engagement Ring: 10 Checks Before You Commit

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