Two Multi-Faceted Split Cuts

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

I once analyzed an exceptional diamond in the surviving top section of an Order of the Golden Fleece made for Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria, in about 1750. The diamond is oval, a Brilliant Cut with fifty six facets round its sixteeen-sided table, far more than on the Tiffany diamond. The star facets and the two different types of girdle facets are split, and the main facets do not even extend to the girdle. In contrast, the pavilion is simply divided into eight main facets round a small octagonal culet. The gem is exceptionally well proportioned, and this, combined with its perfect symmetry, makes it equally brilliant all over. Unfortunately, it is distinctly flawed and I graded it as an I (first Piqué). The surrounding gems are all normal Brilliants. The diamond measured approximately 20 x 17 mm and I calculated its weight as being about 50 ct.

A seventeenth-century experimental Brilliant with radially split facets is illustrated in the catalogue of Philip Hope’s famous collection, Pearls and Precious Stones (1893). Herz describes the gem simply as ‘a brilliant of a square shape, with rounded corners, weighing 5¼ ct.’ In addition to an octagonal table, the gem has forty-eight facets in the crown. There is one inner row of short main facets, and another row, split radially, touching the girdle. There are also normal star and girdle facets. The pavilion is not described.