The Hallmark Society
Stones & cuts
Before electricity, every facet was placed by eye and by candlelight. The way a stone is cut is often the fastest way to date the piece around it.
When each cut arrives
A cut appears and then stays in use, often for centuries, so these are arrivals rather than periods. The order is what does the dating: a closed culet cannot be Victorian, and an Asscher cannot predate its 1902 patent. Dates are approximate except where a patent fixes them.
- c. 1400 Table cut a natural crystal with the top ground flat
- c. 1500 Rose cut flat below, faceted dome above
- c. 1650 Old single cut eight facets above, eight below
- c. 1750 Old mine cut cushioned outline, high crown, open culet
- c. 1890 Old European cut round outline, still a visible culet
- 1902 Asscher cut patented, so a hard floor for dating
- c. 1920 Emerald and baguette step cuts for the Art Deco line
- c. 1930 Transitional cut between the European and the modern
- c. 1950 Modern brilliant the culet closes, and stays closed
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- Gemstone treatments Gemstone Treatments in Antique Jewelry: Foiling, Heating and Dyeing Foiled backs, heated stones, dyed agate and doublets are all period practice, not modern fraud. What each treatment does, how to detect it and how it affects value.
- Cannetille Cannetille and Filigree: Making Gold Look Like Lace Cannetille builds coiled wire into architectural gold, filigree twists it into lace. Both made light jewelry from little metal. How to date, judge and repair them.
- Cameos Cameos: Shell, Hardstone, Lava and the Ones That Are Plastic How to tell a shell cameo from hardstone, lava, coral or moulded glass and plastic, how to date the mount, and what actually decides a cameo's value.
- Whitby jet Whitby Jet: How to Know the Real Black From All the Others True jet is fossilised wood, warm and featherlight; French jet is glass, vulcanite is rubber, bog oak is wood. The identification guide to Victorian black jewelry.
- Niello What Is Niello? The Black That Is Not Enamel Niello is a black metallic sulphide alloy fused into engraved silver, the signature of Russian and Siamese wares. How it differs from enamel and oxidised silver, and how to care for it.
- Marcasite What Is Marcasite? The Sparkle That Is Actually Pyrite Marcasite jewelry is faceted pyrite, fool's gold, set in silver: the affordable glitter of Georgian, Victorian and Deco wardrobes. How to recognise, date and care for it.
- Guilloché What Is Guilloché? Engine-Turned Patterns Under Glass-Clear Enamel Guilloché is machine-engraved geometric pattern, often flooded with translucent enamel that turns it luminous. How engine turning works, the Fabergé connection, and condition rules.
- Granulation What Is Granulation? Gold Dust Frozen in Place Granulation covers gold surfaces with tiny fused spheres, an Etruscan mastery the nineteenth century struggled to rediscover. How it is made, the revival story, and how to judge it.
- Intaglios What Is an Intaglio? The Carving That Prints An intaglio is a design cut down into a stone, the cameo's mirror twin and the ancestor of every seal. How to recognise, date and collect engraved gems.
- Tortoiseshell Tortoiseshell and Piqué: Beauty, Craft, and the Law Around Both Antique tortoiseshell and its gold-inlaid piqué work are identifiable by pattern, warmth and smell, and surrounded by wildlife law. The guide to recognising, caring for and lawfully owning it.
- Repoussé Repoussé and Chasing: Drawing on Metal With a Hammer Repoussé pushes designs out from behind; chasing sharpens them from the front. Together they made most of the relief work on antique silver and gold. How to read and judge it.
- Paste jewelry Paste Jewelry: The Glass That Was Never Ashamed of Itself Georgian and Victorian paste is hand-cut leaded glass, foiled and set in silver with real craft. How to recognise genuine old paste, tell it from later rhinestones, and why collectors pay for it.
- Essex crystal Essex Crystal: The Reverse Intaglio That Paints in Depth Essex crystals are rock crystal cabochons carved from behind and painted, so the image floats in three dimensions. How they were made, the animal subjects, and how to spot fakes.
- Bakelite Early Plastics in Jewelry: Celluloid, Bakelite, Casein and Their Tests Celluloid, casein and Bakelite each have identifying tests: hot water scent, weight, sound and simichrome. The collector's guide to the first plastics and their booming market.
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- Old mine cut Old Cut Diamonds: Mine, European, Transitional and Rose How to tell an old mine cut from an old European cut, a transitional and a modern brilliant, why the culet is open, and what each cut is worth against the others.
- Marquise Fancy Shapes: Marquise, Pear, Oval, Briolette and Cabochon Where the marquise, pear, oval and briolette come from, what a bow tie is and why every elongated stone has one, and why cabochons date nothing at all.
- Diamond cuts Every Diamond Cut, in the Order It Was Invented Sixteen cuts from the medieval table cut to the modern brilliant, each drawn face up and in profile from real proportions, with the date it appears and the fastest way to recognise it.