Did you know that the shape of the brilliant was discovered in the Antwerp diamond district? The most commonly used diamond cutting shape, with 57 facets, was invented a hundred years ago by a Jewish sharpener in Antwerp. He was a Belgian member of a Jewish family of diamond cutters from Poland.
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| Picture by Pixabay |
The Antwerp engineer Marcel Tolkowsky scientifically established in 1919 how the perfect brilliant is cut. Thanks to 57 facets that are placed with respect to each other with mathematical precision, a maximum glare is achieved.
First Tolkowsky, as part of his Ph.D. topic at the University of London, systematically studied the grinding of diamonds. Marcel Tolkowsky found that if a diamond was cut too deep or shallow then the light would escape out the sides or bottom of the diamond resulting in a loss of brilliance.
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| Picture by Pixabay |
Around the same time, in his book Diamond Design, he published the specifications of what would later be called the American Standard. Marcel Tolkowsky died on February 10, 1991. He is generally acknowledged as the father of the modern round brilliant diamond cut. Many of his family members became noted diamond cutters.
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| Picture by Pixabay |
You can find the Antwerp Diamond center next to the central station. Antwerp also has a Diamantmuseum DIVA, you can find that at this address: Suikerrui 17-19, Antwerp.