DIAMOND: APPLICATION IN JEWELLI]RY 239 



India, the only object of cutting a stone is the removal of faulty portions, and a natural 

 octahedron of which the faces have been polished is preferred. In spite of this, various 

 forms of cutting are more or less in vogue ; the most general forms are the thick -stones 

 (Plate IV., Fig. 15, a, b), table-stones, and thin-stones ; the first named form, on account of 

 its generality in India, is often referred to as the " Indian cut." Such forms of cutting, 

 together with others in which the facets are more numerous, are admired and met with, not 

 only in India, but elsewhere in the Orient, namely in Persia, Arabia, Bagdad, &c. The 

 Oriental diamond-cutter follows the outlines of the rough stone as closely as may be, striving 

 to reduce the loss of material to a minimum. The European diamond-cutter, on the 

 contrary, aims at developing to their fullest extent the optical properties of the stone, and 

 makes economy of material only a secondary consideration. In many cases an irregular gem, 

 " lumpy stone," or " pebble," cut by an Oriental, has passed into the hands of a European., 

 and has been re-cut, the greatly enhanced beauty of the European cut stone compensating 

 for the loss of material involved in a second cutting process. Such was the fate of the 

 famous "Koh-i-noor," among other stones; Plate X., Fig. 4, a, b, shows the form of the 

 Indian cut of this stone, and Fig. 5, a, b, c, its form after, being re-cut. 



Diamond-cutting in India was not, however, entirely in the hands of native lapidaries, 

 for Tavernier states that the " Great Mogul," the large diamond named after the ruler of 

 Delhi, its possessor, was cut rather unsuccessfully by Hortensio Borgis, a Venetian cutter. 

 The diamond-cutting industry has flourished in Europe since the end of mediaeval times, 

 and European ideas have had a certain influence upon the development of the art in India. 



In all Western countries in the middle ages, diamonds were used in the rough condition, 

 with the natural faces polished, or in the form of point-stones, thick-stones, table-stones, 

 &c., which were the forms of cutting usual in India at that time. At this period gems 

 wei-e used not so much as personal ornaments by women, but more often for enriching robes 

 of state, such, for example, as the coronation mantle of Charles the Great, and for 

 ornamenting reliquary shrines, sceptres, crowns, scabbards, &c. Practically nothing is 

 known of the diamond-cutting industry in Europe until the beginning of the fifteenth 

 century, when a skilled artisan named Hermann appeared in Paris, and did much to develop 

 the art. As early as 3373 the existence of diamond-polishers at Niirnberg is mentioned, 

 but nothing is known as to the methods practised by these workers. 



The gradual development of the art of gem-cutting and the spread of the knowledge 

 of this art was accompanied by the gradual growth of the custom of wearing diamonds as 

 personal ornaments by women. The custom was introduced subsequently to the year 1431, 

 in the time of Charles VII., in the French court by Agnes Sorel. The taste for this 

 form of personal ornament had grown amongst the ladies of the court of 

 Francis I. to such an extent, that edicts, levelled against the excessive use of gems as 

 personal ornaments, were issued both by Charles IX. and Henry IV., without, however, 

 having any effect. From the French court the custom gradually spread over the whole 

 of Europe. 



The large demand for diamonds thus caused gave a new impulse to the diamond- 

 cutting industry, and during the course of the fifteenth century the art made its greatest 

 strides. The advancement was due, to a certain extent, to the influence of the Dutch 

 lapidary of Bixiges, Ludwig van Berquen, who invented his particular process in the year 

 1476. Although some credence has been given to the statement of Robert van Berquen, 

 that his grandfather was the originator of the modern method of diamond-cutting, 

 namely, the use of diamond powder, yet the device had probably long before been known 

 in Europe. What L, van Berquen probably did was so to improve the technique of the 



