The Mughal Cut

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

I have never had the chance to see and analyze a diamond of this historical Indian cut but reliable information is supplied by Griffin Grant Waite, who is also responsible for suggesting the name. There is also a spectacular report by V B Meen and A D Tushingham. Grant Waite writes that ‘the Moghul cut can perhaps best be defined as a form into which diamonds were fashioned in early times by the native cutters of India, characterized by a large flat back (normally known as the ‘base’ or ‘bottom’), a large table, and many strip facets descending from the table towards the back (there are no fewer than fifteen in the Orloff). Infrequently the table is replaced by a small number of facets at a low angle—usually four. The outline is quite variable, and usually asymmetrical. In most cases the thickness is substantial, giving the stone a lumpy appearance’.

In private correspondence with the three authors, I proposed that the term should be universally recognized, and suggested the following definition, which was incorporated in the 1977 Diamond Dictionary of the Gemological Institute of America: ‘An older style of cutting which is a rather lumpy form with a broad, often asymmetrical base, an upper termination consisting of a set of usually four shallow facets or a table, and two or more zones of strip facets parallel to the base and oriented vertically. It is derived from cleavage pieces.’

Even modern authors such as Basil Watermeyer accept the commonly held view that the modern Baroque Rose Cut was inspired by the Mughal Cut, and by an updated version developed by cutters in the Netherlands. Perhaps the explanation is that one can detect, in those Mughal Cuts which have several rows of triangular facets, a hexagonal symmetry very like that of the crown of a Full-Cut Rose. My own feeling is that the rapidly growing tendency in the late sixteenth century to achieve, by means of numerous small, correctly inclined facets, not only symmetry but also pleasing light effects, led cutters automatically to the modern Full Rose.