Diamond Rosettes

(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:

These flower-shaped combinations of small pavé-set diamonds are recorded in documents as ‘diamond roses’, ‘diamond floweres’, ‘pansy-shaped diamonds’, ‘sparcks of dyamondes’, rose von diamanten, diamonrosl, rose de diamant, fleur de pansée de dyamant, rosa diamantina, etc. Today they are universally known as Rosettes. They first became fashionable early in the fifteenth century and developed gradually until about the second half of the sixteenth century, when they went out of fashion. Both the Rosettes and the names they had been given were soon so completely forgotten that when, many years later, these names were encountered in old documents and texts, they were incorrectly believed to refer to what we now know as the Rose Cut or Diamond Rose—i.e a single, dome-shaped, faceted gem without pavilion. This may be the reason for the belief generally held that the ‘new’ Rose Cut was created in about 1520, the period when the Table Cut was the standard cut, but the fancy cut diamond market was entirely dominated by Rosettes.

Cutters faced with small rough gradually learned how to flatter their customers with combinations which gave the impression of size far beyond their owners’ financial resources! With skill and imagination they succeeded in achieving impressive display at moderate cost, while at the same time creating some of the loveliest jewelry designs ever to be seen.

The most common shapes for cuts at the time were square, oblong and triangular. But a Rosette, being a combination of small diamonds, could be made to appear round and could seem to fill completely a circular setting, despite the fact that in reality the outline was scalloped or lobed because the components were fan-shaped.

Such Rosettes resembled Burgundian Point Cuts in the unusual brilliance of their reflections from their numerous and variously angled facets. This brilliance was initially accidental, but came to be regarded as essential, and was even enhanced by the insertion of thin reflectors of silvery foil which were placed between the diamonds and the pitch in which they were set.