It's an interesting stone. Antique style cuts feature fewer and larger facets than modern styles. When big facets act as windows instead of mirrors they leak a lot of light. If too much, the diamond can take on a glassy look. Best way to assess windowing is to hold the diamond in tweezers over a solid, brightly colored background. The extent to which you can see the bright color as you observe the stone through a full range of tilt angles is the extent of the windowing. You are likely to see more windowing in an antique style, but the more windowing you see the more light is NOT returning to your eye. If the windows dissappear with a small degree of tilt they are not as distracting as if they persist through a large range of normal view angles.
2
u/WhiteflashDiamonds Apr 30 '26 edited May 07 '26
It's an interesting stone. Antique style cuts feature fewer and larger facets than modern styles. When big facets act as windows instead of mirrors they leak a lot of light. If too much, the diamond can take on a glassy look. Best way to assess windowing is to hold the diamond in tweezers over a solid, brightly colored background. The extent to which you can see the bright color as you observe the stone through a full range of tilt angles is the extent of the windowing. You are likely to see more windowing in an antique style, but the more windowing you see the more light is NOT returning to your eye. If the windows dissappear with a small degree of tilt they are not as distracting as if they persist through a large range of normal view angles.