Confession time: I used to not like heart-shaped diamonds; they’re a bit sickly-sweet, I always thought. My mind was changed at an appointment at Graff at their Mayfair HQ at the end of 2016. Here I met and handled the Graff Venus, all 118.78 carats, the world’s largest Type IIa D Flawless heart-shaped diamond to be cut and polished. It sat cold and fiery in my hand. Halfway through the meeting Laurence Graff walked in. “What do you think?” he asked. I bumbled my way through a reply. His response summed it up perfectly. “We have created the most beautiful heart-shaped diamond I have ever seen. It’s beyond words.”
He’s not the only fan. Famous heart-shaped diamonds have peppered history, from the heart-shaped diamond ring thought to have been given to Queen Elizabeth I by her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1562 (don’t be put off by how that ended) to the Taj Mahal diamond given to Elizabeth Taylor by Richard Burton on her 40th birthday, and, more recently, Lady Gaga’s engagement ring from Taylor Kinney.
But what makes the perfect heart-shaped stone? It’s known to be one of the hardest “fancy” shapes to cut, with perfect symmetry required so that the light bounces and refracts evenly through the crystal. Today lasers are used to scan and cut the rough. Before their introduction, though, hand tools and a polishing wheel were all the cutter had at their disposal, with the desired crisp, sharp cleft or central groove the trickiest detail to perfect. Guy Burton, a director at the family-run jewellers Hancocks London, concurs that good antique heart cuts are incredibly rare. “Until recently I had only seen two: the first my dad kept back for my mother for a special birthday as they’re so rare; the other is a 1930s ring by Raymond Yard with a stunning 1.66-carat antique heart. Only the finest diamond cutter could create a beautiful heart shape by hand as they are one of the most challenging technically, particularly before all the machinery and lasers we have today. This ring is a lovely example with very pleasing proportions and a lovely open culet, which is a hallmark of the characterful old cut stones we value so highly.”
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At the auction house Christie’s they extol the charm of a less flawless shape, attainable if your budget can’t stretch to a perfectly cut antique stone. As the jewellery specialist Arabella Hiscox says, “In my experience, something you cannot beat in terms of charm, and which really appeals to the London market, are Georgian or Victorian heart-shaped diamond rings. The diamonds often are not a perfect heart shape, but you still get the general outline — often you can source these at auction for under £10,000.”
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Andrew Coxon, president of the De Beers Institute of Diamonds, warns of one final issue known in the trade as “Mickey Mouse ears”. “These are heart shapes that are so flat that they do not sparkle as they should and where the sides are exaggerated, like the ears of Mickey Mouse.” For beautiful well-proportioned stones, that are as tall as they are wide, look to jewellers such as Jessica McCormack, Pragnell, Tiffany & Co and of course De Beers. “My advice,” Coxon concludes, “is simply that when you find a beautiful heart-shaped diamond, buy it if you have the means, as you may never see a better one in your lifetime.”
