AWDC to mark centennial of Tolkowsky round brilliant cut

The Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) announced it will celebrate the centennial of the "Tolkowsky cut," the famous round brilliant diamond cut that has set the global standard for quality diamond cutting. On May 27, AWDC will mark this milestone with a major event in Antwerp's diamond district. It will stage an event called "100 Years Brilliant" and also hold a street festival.

Tolkowsky, a scientist and scion to a leading Antwerp family of diamond polishers, wrote his PhD thesis on his mathematical formula that enables a polisher to get the maximum brilliance from a diamond. In 1919, he published the results of his research a book titled, Diamond Design: A Study of the Reflection and Refraction of Light in a Diamond. His formula for the brilliant round cut, with its 57 facets (or 58 facets if one counts the culet as a facet) still "rules." Of course, over time, many attempts have been made to adapt or improve on Marcel Tolkowsky's model, but all these variations are invariably called "Modified Brilliant Cuts."

Prescient, Tolkowsky concluded his book with this: "that some new shape will be evolved which will cause even greater fire and life than the brilliant is, of course, always possible, but it appears very doubtful, and it seems likely that the brilliant will be supreme for, at any rate, a long time yet."

To mark the centennial, the AWDC will launch the "57 Project." 57 well-known (and not-so-well-known) friends and natives of Antwerp will join forces to polish a single diamond. The finished product, an exceptional brilliant to be called " 't Steentje," - with Steentje being the Flemish vernacular for a diamond - will be exhibited in the Diva diamond museum.