You might have watched celebrities like Camilla Parker Bowles flaunting her emerald cut diamond ring, and wondering whether emerald cut engagement rings is a good idea for your forthcoming engagement ceremony. After all, you are taking the first important step in life with someone who you love most; you want everything to be just perfect. Getting yourself an emerald cut diamond ring for your engagement is a brilliant idea not because Camilla Parker Bowles has one, but this craze of the Art Deco period of the ‘20s and ’30s has once again captured the imagination of modern women across the country.
In fact, the emerald cut has always remained a favorite of celebrities, royalties as well as the rich and famous.
But before you finally decide to go for an emerald cut ring, do you know what exactly emerald cut is and how you can recognize one, when you see it? This is important, as you want to be as thorough with the cut and the style, so that you can become an informed buyer of emerald cut engagement rings. Here are some fundamental knowledge about this unique cut:
- Also referred to as the ‘step cut’ the emerald cut was originally designed to cut emeralds, a hardy but brittle stone. The cutting is successful when the carat weight is retained without cracking the stone.
- The reason why emeralds are brittle is because this stone has several inherent flaws and impurities which make it prone to chipping or breaking.
- The emerald cut, soon became popular and started to be used on several other stones including diamonds. Therefore, an emerald cut diamond ring would have a diamond that is either a square or rectangular in shape and has 58 facets, or cut edges. These are flat and rising as steps. The flat and broad surface of the diamond is necessary, to allow maximum amount of light to seep through, which finally creates the dazzle and sparkle of the diamond.
- The edges of an emerald-cut diamond would be clipped and because of the unique shape, these stones are limited to claw set styles.
- Because the emerald cut is less in demand than say, round cut diamonds, the prices are more affordable.
- The most popular setting style of emerald-cut diamonds is either a 4 or a six prong arrangement for giving maximum protection to the cut edges.
- The typical length-to-width ratio of the emerald cut diamond should range from 1.3:1 to not more than 1.75:1. But you may also go for narrower or wider measurements, if you so prefer. For example, if you have long and tapering fingers, you could choose a lengthier stone.
To begin with, the elegance and style seen with emerald cut engagement rings is unparallel. As the name suggests, the ‘emerald cut’ is nothing but a style of cutting that was originally reserved for cutting emeralds, an otherwise hard and difficult stone to cut. Emeralds, by nature, carry a number of flaws which make it brittle. Therefore when you see a perfect emerald-cut, you ought to know that not only has it been chiseled by an expert hand, but it has taken a considerable amount of time and experience to give it the impeccable finish that you so admire.
If you are sold on emerald cut engagement rings and wish to celebrate your engagement by gifting your beau with one, you need to equip yourself with some fundamental knowledge to buy better. Here is some basic information about such rings:
- The emerald being a hard stone is tough to cut. The solution to the problem was to give it a rectangular and stepped shape with corners that are cropped. Soon enough, this style of stone cutting was used in diamonds too.
- Emerald cut looks best when the ring in which it is set adorns a long and tapered finger. These rings are not very nice if the wearer has short and chubby fingers.
- The cost of emerald cut engagement rings is less than rings studded with traditional round-cut or the modern princess cut diamonds. In fact, with the carat weight remaining same, the emerald-cut could be cheaper by about a thousand dollars than a round-cut diamond. The reason for its better affordability has nothing to do with inferior quality, etc., but mainly because emerald cuts are not commonly selected.
- The right kind of emerald cut is a good grade, a G color rating and VS2 for clarity. The width to length ratio should be 1.5:1.
- There are plenty of shapes and sizes to choose from. For example you might like a more square emerald cut than something that is more rectangular.
- With a 4-prong setting, these types of engagement rings should ideally have solitaires or have smaller stones for accentuating effect. A 4 or a 6-prong setting is considered to be best, since emerald-cut diamonds need to be set properly, or they might break or get chipped. Because of their easier affordability, you could easily choose a larger sized diamond than you would have normally chosen if you were to buy a round-cut diamond.
- It is not right to choose a bezel setting as this type of cutting requires maximum light to fall on the stone.
Of all things old and beautiful starting from clothes to cars to wine to rugs, that have remained favorites despite their age, vintage diamond engagement rings have staged a comeback with a majority of modern women going for them. In fact, young women are not just going crazy about vintage diamond engagement rings they are even going for wedding gowns created with a vintage flavor and the celebrations are also planned with several vintage themes.
However, finding diamond-studded vintage rings is not a very simple task, for the simple reason that diamonds are not usually sold in thrift shops or even at the local garage sales. Usually, such vintage rings are part of an heirloom and remain within a family. Rarely, unless the circumstances demand it, such rings find their way to the market for the public to buy and wear them. So if you are planning to reject the likes of emerald cut engagement rings, and go exclusively for the vintage variety, be prepared to have patience and a lot of time in your hands.
A passing thought, it might be a good idea to begin your search for the vintage ring right at home! Why not ask Mom if she has a diamond ring stashed away in her jewelry box and whether she is willing to part with it? The next venue for your search for vintage diamond engagement rings is eBay, the famous auction site, where a host of vintage products are up for bids. However, you have to cautious on two aspects: you really do not know the right price of the product – you could be paying much more than what it deserves; the second risk is that the quality is never guaranteed. What you buy as vintage might not ultimately be so.
Your last choice for searching for vintage rings is your jeweler. Of course, these are not ‘genuine’ vintage in the strictest sense of the word, but several jewelers, considering the high demand for such items, are now creating items which resemble vintage cuts and styles and come very close to the real product. When a design and setting is copied to the tee, no body would even know that the ring was created by a jeweler a few months ago and not 50 years back!
Vintage or antique engagement rings, as some people refer to them, have certain characteristic features. Unlike emerald cut engagement rings or round-cut and princess-cut, etc, diamonds of yesteryears used to be cut in a typical style – which may not meet the exacting standards of modern times. Also, people did not much like white diamonds, as they preferred them to be slightly colored (yellow, green or pink).
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