Holiday Jewelry Guide
The holiday season is upon us, and the shopping has already begun. If you want to buy jewelry for gifting your loved ones, we are here to help! We’ve put…
Asscher Cut Diamonds – Basics
Nicknamed the emerald cut diamond’s sparkling sister, the Asscher cut diamond uses an emerald diamond basis, adding corners to create an octagonal outline, along with a smaller table and layered facets designed to create a hypnotic pattern.
PriceScope Pointer: Most laboratories issue NO CUT GRADE for shapes other than round: If the cut is described as “Ideal” or “Excellent” (etc.) it’s a seller’s description, not a laboratory judgment.
Before going on: Check out the PriceScope Diamond Buying Guide
Asscher Cut Diamond Described
Among the various diamond shapes, the Asscher cut diamond is fashioned in the step cutting style, using angled corners and rows of pavilion and crown facets that run parallel to the girdle. Both the Asscher diamond and Royal Asscher cut diamond were developed by the Asscher family in Holland. The Asscher cut diamond has 58 facets. The Royal Asscher cut diamond is a patented square step cut with a notably high crown and extra tiers which bring it to 74 total facets.
The Fancy, Inconvenient Truth
The Asscher cut diamond is often cut to for heavier weight, at the expense of beauty. This is because many grading laboratories, including GIA, do not assess the optical performance of the Asscher cut diamond or other fancy shapes. With no standards enforced, manufacturers tend to plan for the highest yield possible.
Exceptions
The AGS and GCAL assess and grade the optical performance of certain fancy shapes. If you’re seeking cut quality affirmation, fancy shapes with performance deficits will not earn the highest marks from those top-tier laboratories.
Asscher Cut Diamond Selection Tips
Length to Width Ratio:
For the square Asscher diamond, 1.0 – 1.05 is optimal
Other Notes:
The Asscher cut diamond masks clarity better than the emerald cut diamond, but does not conceal color efficiently so for those seeking colorless appearance we still encourage H color and higher.
The primary appear of the Asscher cut diamond is aesthetic. It does not appear as large for the weight as an emerald cut diamond but offers more fire and sparkle than similar emerald cut diamonds due to the smaller table and higher crown.
Like emerald diamonds, the asscher cut diamond will generally look smaller from the “face up” position than other shapes of the same carat weight. Also like emerald diamonds, while depth is not strictly tied to spread in this shape as it is with round brilliants, an Asscher cut diamond may have greater total depth as a result of optimized angles for light return (which is good) or pavilion “bulge” (which is bad).
Asscher Cut Diamond Prices
PriceScope has been maintaining asscher cut diamond prices chart since 2017 and you can visit asscher cut diamond prices for the latest retail asscher cut diamond price statistics.
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