Near Flawless Rose Cut Diamond Earrings Antique 20k
A rare pair of 1900s antique diamond earrings set with hand cut diamonds that are near flawless. At 1.5cm wide, these are a substantial pair of stud earrings.
What are hand cut diamonds?
The almost ‘raw’ look of these diamonds belong to Straits Chinese jewelry art, beginning in the 19th century and throughout the 20th century, tapering off after the second war. One can think of these diamonds to be like those in Georgian jewelry.
Because the eras before favoured the look of diamonds in two distinct styles – organically cut, or European cut diamonds – we recognise immediately if the piece is of Straits Chinese provenance.
Specifically, in the lineage of Straits Chinese organically cut diamonds, we observe another two cuts that look and feel different according to diamond size. The smaller diamonds tend to be more ‘hand cut diamonds’, while the bigger diamonds are more ‘rose cut diamonds’.
This pair features diamonds that are totally organically cut ‘hand cut diamonds’, because each is flatly spliced (even though all diamonds are fairly big). Rose cut diamonds would have a little more thickness to them.
The amazing thing is such organically cut ‘hand cut diamonds’ are rarely this clean (the cleaner ones are almost always highly faceted). The diamonds on this pair look unreal, so clear they resemble glass. The absence of facets (or few facets) on the diamonds allow your eyes to look through totally, as if each splice was just a flat raw piece of flawless diamond.
Historically, many bigger rose cut diamonds were cut in India and supplied to the West. It is no surprise much of Victorian and Straits Chinese diamond jewelry overlap since their diamonds come from the same source.
You can think of the diamonds on this pair of earrings as forming an early version of the Western rose cut diamond. You also see Georgian and early Victorian jewelry to include rose cut diamonds like these, but few and far remain in this condition.
The outer diamonds are gold tipped, a Straits Chinese setting technique that appears to form a frame around the diamonds, although they are really unbounded. From the side you can see the diamonds are really a splice after splice (which explains why it is pointless to mind about ‘carat’ weight when it comes to hand cut diamonds!).
Go for this pair, if you love the look of diamonds in an almost natural state, but not entirely uncut. The last photo gives you a ‘natural’ spectrum, between two pairs of organically cut diamond earrings, this pair more ‘refined’ than the other.
These diamonds have the essence of an untouched diamond. They are uniformly white (not a given for organically cut diamonds) and sparkle without the persistence of modern brilliant diamonds.
