Marquise Brilliant

The marquise brilliant is an elongated brilliant shape like a football. The name of the marquise brilliant is connected with a legend that the Sun King ordered a diamond to be manufactured into Marquise of Pompadour`s mouth.

The marquise is most frequently cut in the standard 58 facet brilliant pattern (33 on the crown and 25 on the pavilion), but can have a varying number of a pavilion facets ranging from 4, 6 or 8. Being sometimes modified in the marquise, the crown can form a so-called “French Tip”. In this case, the bezel facet at the point of the stone is removed. The tipped end of the marquise brilliant should be manufactured very carefully and diligently. The insufficiently thick girdle together with improperly made culet may cause durability problems. At the same time extremely thick girdle presents difficulties in setting and hides the weight below the girdle were it becomes invisible. The good length to width ratio should be close to 1.75 – 2.25.

As the majority of fancy shapes, the marquise brilliant shape depends on the rough crystal to a great extent.

Like other fancy shaped diamonds, marquise one may have a “bow tie” defect. This is a dark cloud resembling the shape of a man`s bow. It occurs when the angels are poorly proportioned. This defect leads to the lack of brilliance.

As for the demand for marquise brilliant diamond, it is not at a premium in recent time, mainly because the oval brilliants are sought-after.