TABLE-CUT DIAMOND : The Original Diamond Cut

The table cut is diamond’s original cut. Before there were roses and brilliants, there was the prevalence of table diamonds. The rough form of the table diamond survives in the most common shape for the stone today, the brilliant cut.

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Origin of the Table-Cut Diamond

The second known diamond to have received complete polish was a table-cut diamond. When Berken shaped the second of three large diamonds from Charles the Bold, the result was a flat thin gem better known as a ‘table diamond,’ or as the Germans called it demant-tafel. The Duke of Burgundy presented this jewel to Pope Sixtus IV.

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DIAMOND CUTS

The table cut was not in fact original to this gemstone. “No novelty,” says King, “it had long been a favorite with the mediaeval lapidaries for cutting all the softer stones.” The rock crystals mounted in huge papal credential rings, for instance, were regular tables. However, as far as the diamond is concerned, this shape was the stone’s original pattern, distinct from the rough stone’s octahedral shape that the point simply rendered sharp and quite regular.

Point Cut — The point, predecessor of tables

The table diamond itself was a variation of the point. The former merely modified the point by cutting off its opposite ends. Hence, tables were simply octahedral diamonds with cropped apices. The result, when viewed from above, is a gem of a square outline, sloping edges and a broad flat plane at the center. The word for this wide facet at the top is the ‘table,’ hence the name ‘table cut.’

Parts of the best of diamond cuts, the brilliant — Parts of the round brilliant, which had already appeared in tables

Creation of the Table-Cut Diamond

The table-cut diamond already had the essential parts of the round brilliant so popular today. Both cuts have tables at the top. Moreover, in either design, the upper, beveled part is the crown. The edges marking either gem’s widest part is the girdle. The portion below the girdle tapering toward the bottom is the pavilion. The plane facet at the bottom of the pavilion is the culet.

From its introduction to the middle of the 1600s, the table cut was the only regular pattern known besides the point. Like the point, this shape made use of the maximum spread of the rough stone. As far as the depth of the stone goes, however, the table diamond required much more work.

Berken introduced this shape by grinding the apex of the regular octahedron down to a flat square surface, and similarly trimming the bottom end. With the advent of bruting, the cutter formed the tables by rubbing the points of two octahedral crystals against each other until the apices wore away into a broad square facet. Then, he carved the culets by likewise bruting the other ends together.

Popularity of the Table-Cut Diamond

Since the girdle is bounded by bevels above and below, the jeweler can quite securely fix the the broadest part of the gem in a metal setting. On this account, the table cut was quite suitable for jewelry. Its broad top facet also displayed much more of the gem’s beauty. In consequence, numerous diamonds from the 1500s received this cut. Moreover, though diamond points were more frequently seen as late as the early 1600s, the table-cut diamond held much higher value.

Dutch Rose Cut — The rose cut, which superseded the tables

Even when the rose cut came into fashion in the 1600s, the table cut persisted. In fact, this shape was the only other pattern popularly known then. By the 1860s, however, cutters rarely produced tables. In the next century, shapes of more complicated faceting generally superseded the table cut.

While the table cut lapsed from fashion, the old table diamonds remained rather valuable. Their shape was a manifestation that the stone came from the Late Medieval Period or the Renaissance. In the 1800s, when there arose a demand for such antique jewelry, forgers took to manufacturing counterfeits to profit off unknowing shoppers. Here, the shape served as proof of a jewel’s age. Along with the rose, the table diamond made known to potential buyers that the antique jewelry was genuine.

Round Brilliant Cut Diamond — The round brilliant, to which the tables eventually evolved

Though the table cut is obsolete now, an offshoot of this pattern has remained fashionable to the present day. It was this shape that gave birth to the modern-day brilliant. Even in the 16th century, some tables had rounded or oblong tables, similar to the top plane of the round brilliant. The brilliant cut developed in particular from a variant called the ‘single cut.’

Varieties of the Table-Cut Diamond

As mentioned, tables came in a range of variation. First, the table diamond varied in the proportion between the depth of its crown and that of the pavilion.

Typical Table Cut Diamond — Typical proportion of tables

Typical Table Diamond

The typical table cut had the same depth above the girdle as it had below. The crown and the underside are thus exact replicas of each other, and the facet at the top is as wide as the facet at the bottom. Besides a square outline, the table diamond may be longer in one direction, giving the gem a rectangular shape. As late as the 1800s, the typical tables were among the diamonds that commonly came from India.

Thin Stone

Lapidaries made thin diamonds into shallow tables, which Europeans called ‘thin stones.’ The cutters carved a bevel along the sides of the thin stone both above and below, thus producing a crown and a pavilion similar to those of the typical table diamond, yet of such trifling depth.

However, when tables were thin and their top facets and culets were broad, the gems were quite ineffective in bringing out the diamond’s brilliance. Because the large faces lay parallel to each other, the light that enters the gem leaks instantly out of the back, instead of bouncing toward the crown where the reflection would produce remarkable brightness. For this reason, a broad thin cut was quite unsatisfactory for diamonds. Such a cut was advantageous for emeralds and other colored stones, but not for diamonds, which, being colorless, depends on the reflection of light to be attractive. Indian lapidaries, however, quite often produced thin tables.

Half-Grounded

When the bottom facet of the table diamond is broader than the top, such a table cut is half-grounded.

Thick Stone

As late as the early 1600s, table diamonds popularly had crowns that were thinner than their pavilion. To produce such a gem, cutters ground away the top end of the octahedral crystal much deeper than they did the bottom end. Frequently the culet was even absent, and the top end received but a narrow facet. On account of the resulting thickness, such a diamond received the name ‘thick stone.’

When Europeans met thick stones whose tables were twice the breadth of their culets, the people often described such a gem as ‘Indian cut.’ Diamonds from India commonly arrived in this form, hence the designation. Upon import into Europe, however, the Indian gems were often recut in order to render them fit for European jewelry.

Single Cut — Single cut, which developed between tables and the brilliant

Other Forms of the Table-Cut Diamond

There are other varieties of the table diamond. The introduction of additional facets modified this shape, and accordingly presented a distinct form of table-cut diamonds. For other forms of the tables, see also the stepped and other tables.

Article published

November 29, 2022 10:27 AM UTC

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About the Author

Jomar Pandan

Jomar ‘Deomar’ Pandan is the author of Power Birthstone. He’s on the fourth draft of a high-fantasy novel, Cybelym, and the first of a historical fiction, Gem Faerie. He hopes to release a nonfiction book about diamond soon. Follow him for updates. Or see his jewelry and designs.