Versions of the elongated shape have existed for centuries. Signet rings, for example, are commonly done in an oval shape as it has enough surface area to carve in a family crest. In the 1700s, they started popping up in Georgian-era England, says Joan Boening, president of premiere antique silver, porcelain, and jewelry company James Robinson. 150 years later, Queen Victoria acquired the Koh-i-noor diamond from India. She recut the whopping 186-carat stone into a brilliant 105-carat oval shape.
It also had a heyday in the 1950s. In 1957, Lazare Kaplan, a Russian born New York diamond dealer, crafted an oval gemstone shape that could be mass produced. It was a fresh contrast to the angular, straight-lined Art Decor rings popular in the 1920s and 1930s—and marketed as such. The famed Kaplan was a supplier of Tiffany & Co. Cartier, and Van Cleef and Arpels. Soon, the shape sat in jewelry store cases across America. Upon his death, Kaplan was credited with its modern origins: “With such outlets, it was inevitable that the oval-cut diamond that he developed would become popular,” The New York TimesIn 1981, the oval engagement ring landed on the most high-profile hand of a generation: Princess Diana’s.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, interest in the oval ring decreased from the peak Diana days. However, the iconic ring once again returned to the worldwide spotlight when Prince William proposed to Kate Middleton with it in 2010. Boening says she saw a similar spike: “We are all Anglophiles, to an extent,” she surmises. Add in Blake Lively’s engagement to Ryan Reynolds soon after, plus a slew of other A-list celebrities rocking the same shape. . .
Boening also points to the same factor advertised by those jewelers in 1958: an oval is a very flattering shape. “When you cut a stone in an oval shape, you get more coverage. So the stone appears bigger.” Thealso agrees, writing: “Because the oval diamond has a larger surface area than a round diamond of equal carat weight, it can appear larger to the eye. The oval shape can make the finger seem longer.
I’m fascinated with hearts. It takes a true artiste to craft a heart shaped stone with a perfect cut.
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