Excerpt from section 1 of the exhibition
A UNIQUE CRYSTAL
DURABILITY – The chink in the armour
Nothing is harder than diamond. However even diamond can shatter! It has cleavage planes in its structure along which the chemical bonds are weaker than in other directions and along which it can be split.
This « weakness » makes a diamond ring vulnerable to daily wear and tear – but it also allows the cutter, with his cleaving steel, to swiftly fashion a rough diamond into a jewel with sparkling facets.
Gabrielle diamonds Suberi Brothers Inc.
New York, United States
Gabriel Tolkowsky, one of the world’s greatest diamond-cutters, designed the Gabrielle diamond. The collection shown here comprises seven diamonds of various cuts. Each diamond has 105 facets, whereas the usual number of facets is 58.
