Diamond and Gemstone Cut Library
One authoritative reference per meaningful cut — mainstream, antique and beyond — connected to live Chaos inventory, related cuts and buying guidance for both consumers and the trade.
Modern brilliant cuts
Round Brilliant
The round brilliant is the standard modern diamond cut: a circular outline faceted specifically to maximise the return of light back to the eye.
Oval
An oval is an elongated brilliant-cut shape — effectively a stretched round brilliant, with the same 57/58-facet arrangement adapted to an elliptical outline.
Cushion
A cushion is a square or rectangular shape with rounded corners and sides, giving it a soft, pillow-like outline; the modern cushion brilliant applies contemporary brilliant faceting to that outline.
Pear
A pear is a brilliant-faceted shape combining a rounded end with a single point, resembling a teardrop.
Marquise
A marquise is a long, narrow, brilliant-faceted shape with two symmetrical points, resembling a boat hull or an eye shape.
Princess
A princess is a square, brilliant-faceted shape with sharp, uncropped corners, combining the sparkle of a round brilliant with a geometric square outline.
Heart
A heart shape is a brilliant-faceted stone in the outline of a heart — effectively a pear with a cleft cut into the rounded end.
Moval
A moval is a brilliant-faceted diamond or gemstone cut that blends the elongated body of an oval with the tapered, pointed ends of a marquise — the name is a portmanteau of the two.
Step cuts
Emerald Cut
The emerald cut is a rectangular (or square) step cut, with the corners trimmed off and long, parallel facets running in "steps" rather than the triangular/kite facets of a brilliant.
Asscher
An Asscher is a square step cut with cropped corners and a high crown, giving it a distinctive layered, "hall of mirrors" appearance.
Antique cuts
Old Mine Cut
An Old Mine Cut is an antique brilliant style with a squarish-to-rounded cushion outline, a high crown, small table, and usually a visible culet, cut by hand before mechanised, symmetry-optimised faceting existed.
Old European Cut
An Old European Cut is an antique round brilliant with a small table, high crown, large visible culet and circular (rather than cushion-like) outline — the direct ancestor of the modern round brilliant.
Transitional Cut
A transitional cut is a round diamond faceted somewhere between an Old European Cut and a modern round brilliant, reflecting the period — roughly the 1880s to the 1950s — when mechanised cutting was steadily refining proportions from one style toward the other.
Rose cut family
Rose Cut
A rose cut is a flat-bottomed diamond with a domed, faceted crown and no pavilion at all — one of the oldest diamond cutting styles still in use.
Dutch Marquise
A Dutch Marquise is a rose-cut diamond — flat-based, faceted only on the crown, with no pavilion — shaped into a marquise (elongated, pointed-oval) outline rather than the round outline of a standard rose cut.
Historic cutting styles
Briolette
A briolette is a fully faceted, usually pendant-drilled teardrop or elongated-oval shape with no flat table, no girdle and no pavilion in the modern sense — the entire surface is covered in continuous, wrapping triangular facets.
Portrait Cut
A portrait cut diamond is an extremely thin, flat, minimally faceted slice — historically cut to be laid directly over a miniature painted portrait so the artwork stayed visible while the diamond protected and enhanced it.