What the shape of the Princess cut diamond looks like

The classic round cut of diamonds has become the standard that is followed all over the world. But the jewelry business does not stand still – craftsmen tirelessly seek and find new ways to use cutting to reveal the beauty of the king of precious stones, to make it even more radiant and perfect. Besides, not everyone likes round gems, and they do not look organic in all jewelry.

And then nature itself rushed to the aid of masters. Jewelers decided to adopt the advantages of the round cut and to play with the natural shape of the diamond, which is an octahedral octahedron. That is, to do what legendary sculptors do – to take a stone and simply remove everything unnecessary from it. This is how the Princess cut, one of the most fashionable and popular cuts today, came to be.

Who invented the Princess cut

This laconic and highly elegant square cut was invented relatively recently, in the second half of the last century. But the appearance of the Princess only crowned a long journey and search of jewelers.

The basis for the Princess cut diamond was the ancient French cut, which in turn evolved from the table cut. The latter has been known to jewelers for more than 5 centuries.

Fig 1. French cut diamond (French cut)

The French cut diamond has a distinct square shape with triangular facets. It is these characteristics that Israeli jewelers took as a basis to create something new.

Of course, in the beginning it was not the “Princess” that was born. In the 60s of the last century, the Israeli jewelry company adopted the method of step-cutting, which was developed by Arpad Nagy. According to it, a diamond was given a square flat shape and had 58 facets applied to it. This profile (Carre) cut was a success in Israel for a long time, but it did not find an army of admirers outside the country.

But in the 70’s, other craftsmen from Israel – Perlman, Ambar and Itzkowitz – decided to improve the profile cut. This is how the Quadrillion came into being. Later, in 1979, the same craftsmen refined the Quadrillion to the Princess, which shines with all the facets of royalty. By the way, the Quadrillion remains in the arsenal of jewelers to this day – it is considered to be one of the varieties of the Princess.

What the Princess cut looks like

It is assumed that when a princess cut is performed, the diamond gets a square shape. Technically, this is not entirely true.

First of all, the shape follows the natural shape – which is an octahedron in a diamond. If you look at the stone from above, you can see that the stone looks like an inverted pyramid with beveled sides. It is this shape that provides the greatest dispersion of light, its bright play in the depths of the crystal.

Secondly, based on the aspect ratio (as a rule, it is 1 to 1.05), it is most often rectangular. But this cannot be seen with the naked eye.

And the main question: Princess cut – how many facets does it have? Since the inventors of the Princess drew the second part of their inspiration from the perfect round cut, the square cut has approximately the same number of facets. 57 or 76 to be exact. How are these facets arranged? Let’s get down to anatomy.

Fig 2. Basic elements of the Princess cut

The largest facet is the square area crowning the stone. It occupies 62 to 68% of the mineral’s diameter. The platform is surrounded by the crown facets: 8 upper wedges, 4 main facets, 4 triangular facets of the second tier of the crown, 4 triangular facets of the first tier, 8 wedge-shaped facets of the lower part of the crown.

The crown is separated from the pavilion by a thin girdle. The pavilion consists of 4 upper triangular faces, 4 main faces and 24 paired chevron wedges. The calette is absent. In this process of faceting, the craftsman is required to observe the proportions and angles precisely.

Advantages and disadvantages of the Princess cut

In addition to the marvelous, truly royal radiance, the advantages of the Princess cut include cost-effectiveness. When processing a diamond, a minimal amount of mineral is lost, which has a very positive effect on the diamond’s cost – all other things being equal, a Princess will cost the owner less than a classic round brilliant cut diamond.

Judge for yourself. So, to get a round brilliant, you need to take a diamond and cut off about 50-60% of its material. And what does it take to get two “pyramids” from which two princess-cut gems will emerge? Just saw an octahedron across at the widest part of the octahedron. Remember, we said that this cut was suggested to jewelers by nature itself?

But the royal has its flaws (though we’d call them features):

• a princess-cut diamond looks smaller than its equally massive round counterpart;
• the rectangular shape implies the presence of “blind spots” that reflect light more poorly;
• a princess cut diamond, according to experts, “gives up” color well, i.e. even a slight tint of the diamond will be noticeable, especially if you choose a white setting; however, this feature is more of a virtue if you like colored diamonds.