The French Cut

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

Pavilion-based French Cuts were square multi-faceted diamonds. They date back to the early fifteenth century, and seem to have been favored by royalty and members of the nobility—Francis I of France, Elizabeth of Austria and the Duke of Buckingham among them—but they did not become fashionable until the seventeenth century, when brilliance was first of all merely accepted and finally became a requisite of all diamonds. The Taille en Seize and the Scissor Cut also came into fashion at this time.

The French Cut followed the existing fashion for square-shaped diamonds but did not derive from octahedral rough as did the High Table Cut. Although French Cuts were produced from other types of rough if this proved suitable or if the jeweler particularly requested it, the original design apparently came from a crystal form which combined cubic and dodecahedral faces. At least the early French Cuts derived from crystals of spheroid shape.

To fashion this type of rough, first the apex had to be ground down to make a square table with its sides set diagonally to the sides of the diamond. Then the main crystal faces were remodelled into facets and the outline squared. Finally, the pavilion was adjusted to a proper depth and given a plain faceting, often in the form of a narrow cross. Although the original reason for fashioning pavilion-based French Cuts was to transform obsolete cuts into something more fashionable, the faceting design has survived to the present day.

The origin of the term French Cut is not known; most probably it was so called because it was more popular in France than anywhere else. In old inventories it is simply described as ‘a Table Cut with a lozenge on top’. For instance, an inventory of 1570 describes a diamond on the border of a headdress belonging to Elizabeth of Austria as ‘ung dyaman taillé en lozange pardessus.’ Small French Cut diamonds have survived in unimportant jewels and trinkets.

Most Flat-Bottomed French Cuts appear to have been recuts of trihedrally faceted Gothic Roses, but the result was a misshapen gem with very poor light effects. Recutting was restricted to rather small diamonds, as we can see from the French Crown inventory of 1791. The apexes of the old, low relief Rose Cuts were ground down slightly, leaving small tri-angular table facets.

Early authors seem to have been unaware of the existence of the French Cut, nor is it discussed in modern literature, where it is frequently referred to simply as ‘a historical single cut.’