Regent
After being stolen in 1792 along with the Hope and the Sancy Diamonds it was recovered a year later and became The National Diamond of France. When Napoleon Bonaparte came to power it was mounted in the hilt of his sword. After his downfall in 1814 it was worn in 1824 at the coronation of Charles X. The stone is now on display at the Louvre. |
Cullinan II
Initially, it was thrown out of the window, perceived as being far too big to be a diamond. It was recovered by Fred Wells, a manager of the Premier Mine in South Africa. The stone yielded 9 faceted diamonds and plenty of smaller ones. The Cullinan II is an antique cushion cut of 317.4 carats. It is now set into the British Imperial State Crown. |
|
Kooh-i-noor
Captured in 1526 by Humayin, at which point it was stated to be valued at half the daily expense of the whole world. In 1850 it was presented to Queen Victoria. Originally weighed 186 carats and took 38 days to cut to its present form of 108.93 carats at a cost of 8000 pounds. The stone is currently set into the Maltese Cross in the crown made for the Queen mother in 1937. |
Wittelsbach
The Wittelsbach weighed 35.56 metric carats and measured 24.40 by 24.46 millimeters, with a depth of and 8.29 millimeters. Minor surface scratches were caused by a butcher of a setter who removed the stone from its setting. It has 82 facets arranged in an unusual pattern. The star facets on the crown are vertically split and the pavilion has eight pairs of extremely narrow facets. Typical of any antique cut stone The Wittelsbach has giant culet. |
|
Archduke Joseph
|
Red Cross
|
|
Hope
The term "Golconda" diamond has come to define diamonds of the finest white color, clarity and transparency as well as type II stones lacking nitrogen in their crystal structure. In its original state it is believed to have weighed 110.5 carats. Eventually it made its way into the hands of Harry Winston who donated the stone to the Smithsonian in 1958. |
DeBeers
Cartier set it in 1925 when it was first purchased and it was sold again in the 1930's when its present owners acquired it. In 1982 it came up for auction but was withdrawn at $1,750,000 which was below its (undisclosed) reserve price. |
|
Tiffany
|
Agra
In 1990, the Agra and two other diamonds from the collection were auctioned at Christie’s. The Agra was certified as a fancy light pink natural color and sold for £4,070,000, briefly making it the most expensive pink diamond in the world. Since then, the Agra has again been re-cut, to 28.15 carats. |
|
Dresden Green
The earliest known reference to its existence occurs in the issue dated October 25th - 27th, 1722 of The Post Boy, a London's newspaper. The diamond is probably originated in the Golconda region of India, it's Type IIa chemical composition in conjunction with the extremely unusual green color makes the Dresden Green one of the greatest diamonds in the world. |
Leon Mege True Antique™ Cushion
Beauty is measured by the amount of glamour a stone projects on an unsuspecting observer by the interplay of light, shadows, and violent flashes of color. The person most qualified to measure, explain, judge, and grade a diamond (especially antique cuts) for its beauty in particular is an artist. The beauty for a dealer is in the $$$$ he sees when trying to peddle whatever goods he can scramble to show. As an artist Leon Megé has a different standard of beauty in mind, give us a call and we will gladly explain to you why these stones are the most beautiful stones in the world |
This magnificent diamond of Indian origin was originally known as the Pitt Diamond after Thomas Pitt who acquired it under murky circumstances. He claimed to pay 10 archers for it and it took 2 years to cut. It was sold in France for 1.35 plums in installments. It was renamed the Regent at this point. 140.64 carats.
Probably best illustration of the Antique Cushion cut, the Cullinan II Diamond was discovered in January of 1905. It is the largest rough diamond to ever be discovered, weighing 3106 carats in its rough form.
This stone might not appear as a traditional cushion shape at the first glance, but if you look closer, you can trace a poorly shape cushion outline.The name stands for "Mountain of Light". A 105 carat (21.6 g) diamond that was once the largest known diamond in the world. 
This diamond was discovered sometime between 1899 and 1901 in the De Beers Mine. It now weighs 205.07 carats but is reported to have weighed 375 carats in the rough. It was sold in 1918 on behalf of the British Red Cross Society and The Order of St. John. Its present whereabouts and owner is not known.
The triangular shape cannot mask the distinctly cushion-like faceting. The shape of the Hope Diamond could be described as a cushion with two poorly formed shoulders. The unusual blue diamond appeared in Europe in 1669 and is believed to be from the Golconda mine in India.
Discovered in March 1888 in the DeBeers mine, weighing in the rough 439.86 carats and 228.5 carats after cutting, it was exhibited at the Paris Exhibition of 1889. It is the 7th largest cut diamond in the world.
This stone was found either in 1877 or 1878. It went to France to be cut, yielding an antique cushion cut brilliant of 125.51 carats. It was purchased by Tiffany in 1879. It is one of the largest rare Deep Canary Yellow Diamonds in the world and has been on display since 1896 at the Tiffany's in New York. In 1983 the stone was valued at $12,000,000.
Agra is the site of the Taj Mahal, one of the most beautiful buildings in the world.
Do you see what I see? This stone at first appears to be a pear, however it could also be classified as as an antique cushion with one side being very narrow matched by a much wider opposite side. The diamond weighs approximately 41 carats.
Antique Cushions
You probably noticed by now that all of the stones on this page have something in common - they are all antique cushions.
When judging diamonds in antique jewelry, one must be careful not to judge antique cushion diamonds by modern standards. Antique diamonds have explosive flashes of fire that many people find very appealing. They have a certain flair and class about them that most people find astonishing, enigmatic, and electrifying. Diamonds were cut by hand until the early 1900's. This was a laborious, time-consuming process. Unfortunately, many antique diamonds have been re-cut with modern techniques. This has caused demand for these old cut diamonds to soar in recent years, along with the prices that people are willing to pay for them. The old mine-cut diamond is the earliest form of the cushion cut. This diamond cut is characterized by its high crown, small table, deep pavilion, large facets and open culet. Other names for this cut are: old miner, Peruzzi cut, and triple cut brilliant.
The beauty of these stones is not in the symmetry of the cut or the amount of light reflected as calculated by dubious light return evaluation systems. These devices created by "diamond scientists", forget about the most important aspect of a diamond which is beauty (let’s see these "scientists" measure the beauty of the Mona Lisa).
Illustrations of diamonds on this page might not represent true proportions and sizes of these rocks. Do not use them to compare true stone sizes, dimensions and proportions.