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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-
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