The Idol’s Eye Diamond

The Idol’s Eye diamond, from which our shop takes its name, epitomizes the brutalization of the utterly individual early Mughal Cut diamonds—found in the mines of Golconda—as they were recut during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to emphasize light performance over character. As recounted by Herbert Tillander, the Idol’s Eye diamond in its original form must have been a thick macle, triangular whole crystal or a large triangular cleavage. He surmises that it must have resembled the Mughal cut Nassak Diamond as illustrated by Mawe in 1823.

The Mughal (or Moghul) cut, the form into which diamonds were fashioned by cutters in South Asia from early times, is characterized by “a large table…many strip facets descending from the table towards the back [and where] the outline is quite variable, and usually asymmetrical. In most cases the thickness is substantial, giving the stone a lumpy appearance.” (Waite)

The transition from the Mughal Cut to the Western brilliant cuts signified the transition from viewing the stone as an almost magical object with elemental beauty stemming from the wonder of its natural form, to one where the stone was judged by how it connected with its surroundings, with light performance shifting the focus of attention from the surface to deep within the stone.

To be sure, brilliant cut diamonds are unparalleled in their ability to reflect and refract light, but we at the Idol’s Eye believe that much individuality has been lost with the transition to the modern. One day diamond cutting may learn to reintegrate the lessons of the past, where the surface idiosyncrasies and natural character of diamonds are not sacrificed for the sake of optimal light performance, but are integrated into a vision of diamond cutting that harmonizes both facets into a unified whole.