What Is A European Cut Diamond

The old european cut is an antique diamond cut that was popular from the late 19th century to the mid 20th century.

What is a european cut diamond. The old european cut diamond or old euro cut was the primary diamond shape used in the art deco era. With every stone cut by hand each old european cut had its own personality and no two were ever exactly alike. Old european cut diamonds oec are an antique type diamond cut born of a time before modern technology enabled the precise geometry we see modern diamond cutters use. Most antique jewelry from that era used old european cut diamonds old mine cut diamonds rose cut diamonds and single cut diamonds.

Old european cut diamonds were the diamond cut that was used in almost all rings made at the beginning of the 1900s. As technology advanced diamond cutting techniques changed the placement and proportion of a diamond s facets. Up until about ten years ago old cut diamonds such as old mine cushion and old european were viewed by many as diamonds that needed to be recut into modern cuts like the brilliant cut. There is some overlap between the periods when both antique diamond cuts coexisted.

Unlike a modern round brilliant the old european cut is cut less precisely and is as a result more organic in shape. The old european cut evolved from the old mine cut with their trademark small tables heavy crowns deep angles and large visible culet. Old mine cut diamonds or miner cut were used in victorian and edwardian eras. The cut of a diamond greatly affects a diamond s brilliance.

The old european cut is regarded as the most advanced antique cut. It succeeded the old mine cut diamond keeping the large culet and small table but having a rounder shape. The old european cut is round in shape with an appearance that s similar to the modern round brilliant cut diamond. A diamond cut is a style or design guide used when shaping a diamond for polishing such as the brilliant cut cut does not refer to shape pear oval but the symmetry proportioning and polish of a diamond.

This means if it is cut poorly it will be less luminous. Old european cut diamonds are also known as old euro round old mine and european cuts. A diamond dealer would often devalue the stones by approximately 20 30 percent as that would be the amount of diamond weight lost in the recut. Diamond cutting became significantly less crude in the late 19th century which led to the creation of the old european cut diamond popularized during the victorian edwardian and art deco periods.

The charts below show current retail diamond prices statistics for european diamonds from the inventories of 15 vendors listed on pricescope. The old european cut is the predecessor of today s modern round brilliant cut and was very popular during the late 1800s. Each link represents an average per carat price for different color and clarity combinations.