What is a Princess cut?

Be sure and take a look at my Gram Princess and Prince cutting designs online.

There seems to be a question as to what exactly a Princess cut is.

It was originally a diamond cut, but there is some confusion as to what it really looks like. I talked to several friends in the diamond trade and we looked at a lot of cut diamonds that are being sold as "Princess" cuts.

There were several designs being called "Princess" cuts that really, other than being a square or modified square shape, had no relation to each other. As we looked there seemed to be one design that was prevalent over all. This design had square corners, a series of "v" shaped facets on the pavilion, (there were 2-4 tiers of V's depending on the size of the stone) and a crown with a simple step cut and a tier of scissors cuts at the table, the table was very large 70% plus on all the stones I/we looked at.

According to Eric Bruton FGA, the author of "Diamonds" the Princess cut was introduced by A. Nagy a London cutter in 1960 as an economic cut for flat diamond crystals (p216).

Below is a design that is what all the diamond dealers and I thought a Princess looks like. I am not sure if it is exactly what the original cut looked like, but it is certainly what people in the trade are calling a Princess cut.

Note: Because of the angles involved this design will not cut with much brilliance in most colored stones, with maybe the exception of Zircons, which are/were a diamond substitute.

Return to Just Ask Jeff Index