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Chaumet’s new Taille Impératrice cut may just outshine the traditional brilliant
Is it possible to improve upon brilliance? Chaumet’s lapidary team thinks it has. Following three years of intensive research and development, the maison recently unveiled Taille Impératrice, a new diamond cut with a unique hexagonal shape and 88 facets. Its claim to fame over the well-loved brilliant cut is that it purportedly reflects more light. Brilliance is, after all, still not perfection.
Jean-Marc Mansvelt, Chaumet’s CEO, reveals what makes Taille Impératrice more brilliant than the brilliant. “For Taille Impératrice, the reflection of light takes place on the table and on all facets of the crown. This is not the case with the brilliant cut, which reflects light only off the table and the highest facets of the crown. The angle of the light reflection of the Taille Impératrice is also nearly 50 per cent wider. The light is therefore captured and returned in a greater number of directions, which is what creates this extraordinary brilliance.”
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No doubt, mathematical precision has contributed to the beauty of the cut, but far from cold, calculated perfection, each stone also carries with it a human touch. “The cutting is essentially artisanal,” Mansvelt says. “Only the first phase in the cutting and preforming of the rough diamond involves the use of a scanner and a laser. After that, each facet is cut by hand.”
For its debut, the Taille Impératrice has found a perfect fit in Chaumet’s iconic Bee My Love collection. That its hexagonal shape is an impeccable match for the collection’s six-sided honeycomb motif was no coincidence.
