In the bowels of the earth, the majestic architecture of crystals is born, which exists according to the eternal laws of geometry. They undergo severe tests before appearing in a noble appearance that amazes with the wonderful grace of forms, the play of light and magical power that attracts the eye and the desire to possess them. After all, no one doubts that the owner of a gemstone also has its power.

What is the power of a diamond? One of the most characteristic properties of a diamond is its hardness. It is no coincidence that its name comes from the Greek adamas - "indestructible". And according to another version, the diamond comes from the Persian word elma - "hardest". Be that as it may, but the fact that diamond has the property of high hardness has been recognized by all peoples since ancient times.



In the 1st century AD. it was considered the most precious of earthly goods, but despite this, among precious stones, the diamond was not always considered the main one.

"Adamas" - "indomitable or indestructible", as people called the diamond. It got its name due to its extraordinary strength. However, the diamond was rarely used in ornaments... In ancient Rome, it was inserted into a frame without cutting, in other words, there was no such opportunity at that time to cut such a strong stone.

It is the hardness of the stone that is the reason that the rich history of this beautiful creation of nature began quite late - not earlier than the XIV century. And, as you know, cutting is aimed at maximizing the beauty of the stone. The perfection of the cut can significantly affect the price of the stone.



All that jewelers who lived many centuries ago could do was polish the natural facets of the crystal, for this they rubbed one diamond against another. There was another more technological method - the stone was polished using a rotating metal disk, on the surface of which diamond powder was applied. Now such decorations can only be seen in museums.


In addition to the inability to defeat the strength of a diamond, in some countries, for example, in India, there was a taboo on changing the octahedral shape of the crystal. Only in 1375 the jewelers of Nuremberg began to make stones "with a platform", cutting off the top of the crystal. By their appearance, such stones resembled a truncated pyramid. This was the first step towards cutting the "invincible".



The next step was to file the bottom of the crystal first, and then the side faces. It seems that all this is so insignificant for crystal cutting. But it was these steps that helped jewelers, and the whole world, to know what it means the beauty of a diamond... Its crystal structure is such that light, falling on the site, causes a characteristic play of rays. It turned out that cut diamonds are able to reflect light much higher than natural natural crystals. And then the "invincible" and "indomitable" diamond received another name - "sparkling" (French brilliant).

And finally, new additional faces appeared on the surface of the crystal - facets. The master who dared to convey the beauty of the diamond on a wider scale turned out to be the court jeweler of the Burgundian Duke of Flemish Lodewig van Berkem. In 1465, he gave the diamond the shape of an elongated drop. By the way, the famous pale yellow Sansi diamond also has the shape of a drop, or pear.



In the 16th century Italian jewelers Giacomo Taglikarne and Giovanni Carniole began to cut diamonds in the shape of a rose. This ancient cut still serves diamonds to this day, turning them into diamonds. It has no platform at the top and no sawed-down bottom part; the cut has symmetrically located edges. There are “roses” in various designs, and depending on the number and shape of the facets, they distinguished between “Dutch”, “Antwerp”, etc.varieties.

So from century to century, diamonds have improved, showing their beauty to the whole world, enchanting with bizarre shapes and delightful sparkle. An Italian, Cardinal Mazarin, who was glorified in the pages of his novels by Alexander Dumas, was involved in the further history of cutting.

Unlike the gallant musketeers, he was a historical and significant figure. He had an influence not only in diamond cutting, but also in politics, showed his abilities in many areas. With his support, the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture was founded, he owned luxurious diamonds, including the famous Sancy. The diamonds cut "by the Mazarin method" sparkled with their 34 faceted planes, many of which, after the death of the cardinal, according to the will, fell into the hands of the "King of the Sun".



At the end of the 17th century the Italian jeweler Vicenzo Peruzzi has developed an even more complex cut, with 57 facets - 33 on the upper side and 24 on the lower. The faceted crystal has acquired a rounded shape. This cut was later called diamond cut. It was this cut that revealed the extraordinary sparkling properties of the stone.

The rays of light entering through the platform are twice reflected from the inner faces on opposite sides of the diamond and go out to the top. This stream creates the effect of flashes of light, for which the diamond is famous. At the heart of the play of color on the edges of a diamond is the dispersion of light, or the decomposition of light. A diamond, like a transparent prism, decomposes a stream of white light into colored rays. It is this property of a diamond that pleases and attracts eyes, fascinates and excites, evokes a storm of emotions.



In the twentieth century even more complex diamond cuts appeared, for example, the "royal" cut, which contains 86 facets, the magna cut - 102 facets, the princess cut - 146 facets. And that is not all. Next came the cutting, which had "lost" count of facets altogether. This is surprising, delightful, but does it give more edges and maximum play of light? One young man, the mathematician Marcel Tolkovsky, also thought about this. Born into a family of jewelers, he watched diamond flashes from childhood. By the age of twenty, Marcel had thoroughly studied optics and analyzed the path of the diamond's rays.

Thus, it was concluded that for the complete reflection of the beam from the second facet, the angle of its inclination should be no more than 43 ° 43? to the horizontal plane. In this case, maximum light reflection occurs. Now stones whose proportions and angles are calculated in this way are called Tolkovsky diamonds.

Diamond crystals there are different shapes and sizes, and it is not always possible to create a diamond cut according to Tolkovsky. Jewelers take into account the natural shape of the stone, hence the different types of cuts. But whatever the cut of the diamond, no one doubts their magical power.