Ch. 9: Cutting Diamonds

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	THE BOOK OF DIAMONDS rose cut was elaborated later until it contained as many as thirty-two facets; this cut prevailed another hundred years. Then a Venetian, Vincengo Peruzzi, in 1660, improved the plan of the table and rose cuts until he attained the brilliant appearance of the diamond as it is cut today fifty-eight facets, the cut which gives a stone fifty-eight facets brings out its full light and beauty. Such diamonds assumed their rightful place in the front ranks of precious stones and were widely employed in the jewelry of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The standard cut diamond of fifty-eight facets is cut properly proportioned, the diamond shows an equal distribution of light and brilliancy at all distances from the eye. The center under the table is as full of light as the edge facets, because the back facets are holding the light which has entered from the front. If the stone were cut too deep or too shallow, part of the light would pass through the back facets and leave a dark center, called a "well" in a deep stone, or a "fish eye" in a shallow stone. Diamonds may be cut in many other ways, according to the taste of the times. Diamonds have been cut in the form of squares, triangles, lozenges, kites, keystones, hexagons, etc. To make full use of its refractive power, and so exhibit all its splendor, a diamond must have many facets. But jewelers agree that no other design brings out the same prismatic play of colors as Peruzzi's brilliant cut. On this one design, the diamond industry of Amsterdam and Antwerp is founded. Other guilds (an association of persons for a common purpose) were soon founded in Amster- 80

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