Diamonds

Four C's

At Mappin & Webb we understand that before you start shopping around for that perfect diamond you need to have an understanding of what you are buying. We have put together this simple guide to assist you when choosing that special diamond purchase. There are four main criteria to consider when buying your diamond these are cut, colour, clarity, and carat weight also referred to as the 4C's - This will enable you to select your diamond based on the same criteria jewellers use to grade them.

Colour

Diamonds come in a range of natural colours and shades, from light yellow to totally colourless (which are the rarest and the most valuable).

Diamonds that have a natural colour, such as pink, blue or green, are also extremely rare and therefore very valuable.

The alphabet is used as the grading scale for colour, starting with grade 'D', which denotes colourless, and moving through the alphabet as any colour becomes more and more visible.

Cut

Transforming a diamond from its natural, rough state into a perfect, glittering jewel is a very fine art. Cutting and polishing the many facets can take weeks, even months, of painstaking work.

The cut of a diamond determines its brilliance, dimensions and finish. A diamond that's cut to good proportions handles light better, creating more brilliance and sparkle, therefore commanding a higher value.

In 1919 a man named Marcel Tolkowski calculated the ideal proportions of a brilliant cut diamond. However, it's since been discovered that this was not the only solution, so we can now directly compare many different cuts. Marcel's great-nephew Gabi Tolkowski is still working and cutting fine diamonds today, and coming up with wonderful new designs.

Clarity

Clarity is graded based on the number, location, size and type of 'inclusions'. These are nature's birthmarks and are sometimes referred to as 'flaws'.

Most diamonds contain miniscule inclusions that make each and every one unique.

These inclusions neither mar the beauty nor endanger the durability of a diamond, although a stone will sparkle more the fewer and smaller the inclusions are.

Carat

Like all precious stones, diamonds are weighed in carats. Originally, they were measured with carob seeds, and this may be where the word 'carat' comes from.

Later the system became more scientific, and one carat was standardised at 0.2 grams.

Fewer than 5% of diamonds used in jewellery weigh more than a carat. Most are weighed in hundredths of a carat, or 'points'. So 50 points is a half of a carat, or 0.50 carats. Not to Scale.