Antique Diamonds
Unique engagement rings with antique diamonds
When we source a round brilliant lab diamond, we’re looking for quantifiable perfection. Antique diamonds are kind of the opposite! Each one is unique and was hand-cut by artisans of the past to sparkle in candlelight. They’re rarely perfect in the modern world of diamond grading, but that’s why we love them: like you and your love, they’re all unique and not without their little quirks. These imperfections make antique diamonds one of a kind and incredibly charming. Antique diamonds have chunky facets, steep crown angles, asymmetrical faceting and a visible culet (the pointy bottom of the stone that shows through the top like a little circle).
Antique diamond cuts
Old Mine Diamonds
Old Mine Cut diamonds are a type of antique cushion cut diamonds, with slightly tighter parameters around the measurements that qualify. This style was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. They feature a pillow-like rectangular or square shape, small tables, high crowns, and deep pavilions. We source both antique cushion cut and Old Mine Cut diamonds (and we encourage you not to worry too much about the difference).
Old European Cut Diamonds
In the late 19th century, the invention of the power-driven bruting machine allowed lapidaries to create perfect (or near perfect) circles when cutting diamonds - and the Old European Cut was born. Old European Cut diamonds retain the chunky facets, small tables and open culets of the Old Mine Cut. Because of the improved technology of the time, Old European Cuts often have a more regular faceting pattern and more brilliance than Old Mine Cuts.
Let’s choose your diamond
How we’ll work together to curate your perfect antique diamond.
1 Deciding Priorities
Unlike lab-grown diamonds, where we can pretty much achieve perfection at an accessible price point, antique diamonds are much more unique - and we’ll be real, they’re more expensive too. That means most people will have some decisions to make about their priorities. Through our concierge diamond service, we’ll help you work through what matters most to you in a diamond and create priorities to find the most beautiful stone in your budget. Some clients love a little bit of warmth in an antique diamond and are happy with a lower color grade to get a larger stone, for instance; other clients adore a really funky, irregular Old Mine Cut and that opens up room in their budget for higher color or clarity, or a larger stone. From there, we can begin sourcing, or show you diamonds from our small collection that might fit what you’re looking for.
2 The Search Begins!
We have trusted antique diamond dealers committed to ethical sourcing, including transparent provenance (or various methods of guaranteeing a diamond is a true antique). Once we have a rough idea of what matters to you in a diamond, we’ll help you refine your priorities by showing you a selection of antique diamonds in their inventory. Sometimes seeing a few videos can help enormously in confirming that you really do like a warm color, or that you strongly prefer Old European Cut to an Old Mine. Every antique diamond we source will include our dealer’s provenance.
3 Building your dream ring
Once we’ve found your perfect antique diamond, we’ll work with you to select or create an heirloom-quality setting to match your stone. All of our settings are custom made to measure for your diamond by our NYC-based team of jewelers - so your ring will have an elite level of craftsmanship to match your stunning artisanally-cut antique diamond.