After the announcement of Taylor Swift's engagement, every media outlet was flooded with images or her, her fiancé, and of course that stellar ring.
Most report it to be an old mine cut diamond. But is it? We would disagree, in part.
What is an old mine cut diamond? How does it differ from a cushion cut diamond?
Let us begin with an old mine cut diamond. It is a diamond cut that was all the rage in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is a brilliant cut (usually with 58 facets or angles) but unlike modern diamonds, the perimeter often shows off various angles, rather than, say, round. Usually it is chunky or deep, and because it was hand cut, rarely are two the same.
You might say it has personality because it is not perfectly square, or precisely round. Putting it simply, these diamonds are slightly irregular in shape. But that doesn't lessen their glittering, dazzling impact. Rather than machined regularity, each has its own distinct style and life - unique vibes.
Cushion cuts can be modern in date, or antique. Antique cushion cuts are a subcategory of an old mine cut. They are brilliant in cut, but they are rectangular (or squarish) in shape with their corners rounded. The corners are key as is the designation. Generally diamond experts do not call an elongated, rectangular diamond with rounded corners, an old mine cut, they use the term, cushion. You say tomato, and I say to-mah-to.
As to age, a clue to their date is their irregularity. If it appears like a machine cut it, well, there you go.
While images of Ms. Swift's ring are not close ups, her diamond's shape is rectangular with rounded corners. That puts in in the category of an cushion cut diamond. Because it is bezel set, and due to its shape, it is difficult, without macro photos, to say if it in antique. But we will trust the sources that say it is and not doubt that fact.
Above is an antique cushion cut diamond from The Three Graces that is also bezel set.