By Harakh Mehta

Diamond cuts—the shape, proportions, and arrangement of facets in a diamond—are often judged by their relation to light. Brilliance, fire, scintillation, and overall appearance play into a diamond’s assigned value. Before the advent of electricity, the best way to ascertain a diamond’s brightness was to hold it up to candlelight. The ideal cut for such subtle lighting was the rose cut, as captured candlelight shone right through it.

This luminescent cut, with its water-like diaphanous quality, has been around for generations. Yet, it is often overshadowed by its flashier brilliant cut cousins. While some say that a brilliant cut offers more brilliance than a rose cut, the real beauty of the rose cut diamond lies in its transparency and luminance.

What is a rose cut diamond?

Rose cuts were named for their triangular facets, which, in their cascade down from their delicate crown to slender base, resemble an unfurling rose bud. They are believed to have originated in Antwerp, Belgium, some 400 years ago. With half of Belgium’s floral exports being roses, an enduring symbol of love, it’s fitting that some of the most famous rose cut diamonds adorned Victorian engagement rings.

The uniqueness of the rose cut lies in its flat and large table, small crown angle, and domed bottom. Collectors often describe the rose cut as having “a subtle, soft glowing luminescence” or “a unique ethereal quality that reflects light differently.” While most diamond cuts prioritize light captured within a stone, the rose cut’s relatively large table ensures more light is reflected off its surface. This gives off an extremely high return of white light, especially when compared to a brilliant cut with a smaller table.

The rose cut’s innate transparency is far more unforgiving of clarity flaws and weak colours. The beauty behind higher colour and higher clarity rough diamonds truly shines in a rose cut. In comparison, a brilliant cut may be able to hide its internal flaws—its fire masking colour and scintillation masking clarity flaws. If you compare a similarly high-graded brilliant cut and a rose cut side-by-side, the rose cut will look more colourless, of a higher clarity, and certainly more luminous.

The versatility of the rose cut

An artisan’s dream, rose cuts are a canvas that can be cut in any shape—round, oval, kite, pear, and many more—allowing for the creation of diverse, bespoke jewellery. The potential is limitless, a designer or collector can dream up the shape and the cutter can oblige to present exactly that.

Unlike brilliant cuts, which reveal a less attractive backside if the piece flips, rose cuts maintain their beauty regardless of orientation. Rose cuts can have varying depths, allowing for diverse appearances and intricate designs. Whether flat or deep, they can be set in multiple ways—with the dome elevated or set down.

Any diamond requires a minimum of 17 facets, but the rose cut could have 100 or more.  Depending on the length and depth of the stone, designers can experiment with the number and placement of facets as well as the crown angles. This gives a wide range of options to manipulate and enhance overall appearance by adding to the luster. One simply does not have all these design choices available in full cut diamonds.

The rose cut diamond’s secret

One of the most intriguing aspects of rose cut diamonds is their deceptive size. Although stones of this strategic cutting technique appear to be larger than brilliant cuts of the same diameter, they can weigh around 25 to 30 per cent less.

The secret? The rose cut’s shallower pavilion and greater table size creates an optical illusion, making the gem seem significantly bigger than its actual weight—a one-carat round rose cut will look more like a 1.25 to 1.40-carat brilliant cut round diamond. This difference is even more pronounced with fancy shapes such as pears and marquise, where brilliant cut gems can weigh up to 1.5 times more than rose cuts of a similar diameter.

That’s not all. Given the current appetite for brilliant cut diamonds in today’s market, rose cuts are far more economically priced per-carat. In other words, if the colour and clarity is the same between a rose and brilliant cut, a one-carat rose cut could possibly get the look of a 1.25-carat brilliant cut at the price of a 0.80-carat brilliant cut!

In a day and age where every jeweller and brand are being inspired by one another to come up with similar looks,
I advise my savvy collectors in search of the discerning, to consider adding a rose cut diamond to their jewellery box. Just think: You’ll be wearing a style of cutting that has been loved for more than 400 years, embodying history, grace, and artisanal craftsmanship.

Harakh Mehta is the founder of New York-based luxury jewellery company, HARAKH. An alumnus of the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), Mehta is a fourth-generation diamantaire who has made his mark in the high jewellery world, providing multi-carat confections for celebrities, sports figures, and more. In 2020, he was honoured with Fashion Group International’s (FGI) Rising Star Award. Mehta has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Vogue, and Vanity Fair, among others. For more, visit Harakh.com.