The majestic Marquise Shaped Diamond, also known as “Navette Cut”, is perhaps the most dramatic of all diamond shapes and cuts. If you are a drama-queen and love to flaunt your individuality, this is the diamond for you. Why? Let us see 5 intriguing things that you need know before buying a marquise shaped diamond. The Secret: This regal diamond has one of the most fascinating and swoon worthy history that dates back mid 1700’s. As the story goes, King Louise XIV commissioned his court jeweller to create a diamond cut that would reflect the beautiful shape of the mouth of his beloved mistress Marquise de Pompadour. Over the time, this enticing shape came to be popularly known as Marquise cut. The heart shaped diamond is often symbolized as a gesture of love, however such a romantic history not just gives marquise cut its dramatic flair but speak of miles about love. Why should you buy? One of the best reasons to buy a marquise shaped diamond engagement ring is simply that it flatters your finger and makes your fingers look gracefully slender and longer. It is particularly complimentary on slighter hands with long fingers. With the right setting the elongated tapered edges tend to mask some inclusions or flaws. This stunning loose diamond looks equally ravishing with any number of settings, designs and styles. Is it affordable? This skillfully crafted, stretched-out stone with narrow edges maximizes the carat weight giving an illusion of a larger diamonds than a round cut or princess cut in the same carat weight. So a budget conscious couple can buy a smaller carat stone at affordable price as it offers an impression of larger carat diamond. This shape also has a pretty high brilliance and fire which adds on to its mass appeal. What to look for before buying? Here we will use some technical jargons that you might not be aware of. Just ask your jewelry and they would guide you rightly. Here are a few things to look for before buying diamond jewelry:
- If you are looking for an ideal marquise shaped diamonds the best length to width ratio is up to 1.75 to 2.15. Anything lesser than 1.75 will make the diamond look shorter and stouter and anything longer than 2.15 will make the diamond look slimmer and narrow.
- For marquise cut the best diamond grades in relation to; color should be between D to I and clarity should range between Flawless to VS2 on a GIA scale.
- Look out for the “bow-tie effect”, which is most common with the marquise cut. It marks a flaw in the diamond in form of shadow that appears when light escapes from the bottom instead of refracting of the surface. Though almost always unavoidable, with ideal to excellent quality diamond this flaw can be drastically reduced.