The Master Cut Diamond

The standard brilliant cut diamond is cut with 57 flat surfaces known as facets but the Master Cut diamond has 16 more facets, allowing a greater brilliance and fire to be reflected

Anchor Certification

Every ring and piece of Master Cut jewellery is independently certified by Anchor Cert, an independent arm of the Birmingham Assay Office. This is the stone's passport which tells you the precise weight of the stone or stones, the shape and cut of the diamond, the dimensions of the stone, the clarity and the colour.

On the opposite page you will see a brief explanation of the colour, clarity and cut. With this in mind we set the standard of all Master Cut diamonds to be of a high quality and standard. This we have confirmed to us by the independent certification by Anchor Cert on each piece of Master Cut jewellery, ring, pendant or earrings.The colour and clarity standard we set is minimum of G colour and VS2 clarity. This high standard with the superb cut makes any Master Cut piece stand out. Its brilliance and high quality create a beautiful piece of jewellery to be treasured forever and ever.

A gift from the Earth

Diamonds, the most precious of all natural creations and symbol of eternal love were created before the beginning of time by the heat and pressure at the core of the Earth's formation. They have journeyed along volcanic pipelines forcing their way to the surface where, as rough stones, they wait to be discovered and their fiery brilliance released by the skills of the diamond cutter.

The Beauty within

A rough diamond resembles a pebble. It is only the skill of the craftsmen that unlocks the fire inside. The beauty of the diamond depends on the way it refracts and reflects light. The polisher must facet the stone so that it reflects light directly into the eye, whilst still allowing it to bounce around freely inside and emerge from the top. In this way, the maximum light is reflected and the stone sparkles with an internal fire.

Cut with sixteen extra facets

The Master Cut Diamond has been developed to maximise the brilliance, fire and scintillation of the diamond and it is only with great care, experience and knowledge that we have produced with the help of nature a most stunning cut of diamond. To find the cutter who could provide us with this cut to the quality that we required entailed a world search and the results are outstanding as not only do we have a superb cut of diamond with a high certification, we have beautiful settings and mounts in yellow gold, yellow gold and platinum, all white gold and most precious of all, platinum. The gold and platinum we use to set these rings and jewellery has characteristics only found with precious metals. The 18ct yellow gold is hardwearing, rich and deep in colour.

The 18ct white gold has the same gold content but has other white metals added to give it its white colour.The 18ct gold and platinum setting is different again. The deep rich colour of the yellow gold shank with a white platinum head. Platinum was used to mount a fine diamond because of its hardness and resistance to wear. It is more expensive and is a skilled art but the result is well worth a little extra. Platinum is one of the most precious metals used in jewellery. Hardwearing, strong and beautiful, platinum has a different feel from any other precious metal and requires considerable skill in producing fine quality jewellery.

Colour

The colour of a diamond is rated on a scale from D onwards and the best colour is colourless (D). This is not related to the rainbow effect that maybe reflected from the diamond but refers to the actual colour of the stone itself which at the lower end of the scale may appear as light yellow, brown or grey.

Interestingly, diamonds in shades of pink, blue, amber, green and red can occur accidentally but are extremely rare. Known as Fancy Colours, they are evaluated on a different scale and can be highly expensive due to their rarity.

Clarity

Virtually all diamonds contain inclusions or 'birthmarks' which together with any surface irregularities or 'blemishes' make up the clarity of the stone.Almost every diamond contains minute traces of non-crystallised carbon. These traces, known as inclusions, are nature's fingerprints and make each diamond unique. The method of grading clarity is very complex and many of the inclusions are not visible to the naked eye but the fewer of these imperfections, the more valuable the diamond.

Carat

The word Carat is used to express the weight of the diamond and originates from the small seed of the carob tree. Because the seed's weight and size is of a consistent nature, the diamonds were weighed against them until a standardised system was created. One carat is divisible into 100 points. So, a diamond weighing one quarter of a carat can be described as weighing 0.25 carats or 25 points. The size of a diamond has direct affect on its' rarity value, a 1.0 carat diamond will be of far greater value than twice that of a 0.50 carat diamond.

Cut

Of the Four C's, the cut is the only quarter that relies upon the intervention of man, the other three being governed by forces of nature. From its' original form known as 'rough' the diamond is cut into various shapes and the better the cut, the better the diamond's ability to reflect the light.

View the Master Cut Diamond Collection