A Short Note About Diamonds . . .
Diamond, rightfully the King of Gems, owes its enduring popularity, not to its colour as with most other precious stones, but to its sparkle and brilliance. Colourless diamonds have always attracted its devotees and will continue to do so.
Colour, particularly yellow and pink, is found in the rare fancy diamonds sometimes seen in high end jewellery. The name diamond is taken from the ancient Greek word adamas translated as "unbreakable" or "unalterable".
Diamonds are thought to have been first recognized in India, and extracted from their rivers, for at least three millennium. In India, diamonds were seen as sacred symbols. Diamond in its uncut crystal form is not especially attractive, lacking the beauty it displays as a cut and polished gem. The craft of diamond cutting is in dividing, shaping and faceting the crystal into a gem that reveals diamond’s hidden beauty. Light is returned from and bent within the faceted gem to produce the optical displays that gem professionals describe as ‘life’, ‘fire’ and scintillation. The admirer sees a combination of these displays as the famed brilliance and ‘sparkle’.
The hardest of all gemstones is the diamond. Hardness is the ability of any gem to withstand being scratched. The gem retains its supreme lustre for generations as only diamond can scratch diamond. Yet the jewellery owner must take reasonable care as diamonds can be chipped or split if dropped on to a very solid surface. The hardness and optical properties of diamond, responsible for its beauty, are due to its simple structure of carbon atoms bound in a very tight arrangement.
The quality of a gem diamond is judged by the jewellery industry according to the well-known ‘4Cs’; weight measured in Carats, Clarity is the absence of internal tiny imperfections, Colour and finally perfection of its Cut. Remember, the larger of two diamonds may not be of the better quality! The featured yellow diamond ring is a bespoke ring and the colourless diamond ring is from our Art Deco engagement rings collection.
