1.51 ct Marquise Diamond Earrings, White

1.51 ct total, D–F colour, VS clarity, 18K white gold

A pair of earrings set with marquise cut natural diamonds radiating from a centre, 1.51 carat in total, colour D–F, clarity VS. 18K white gold.

The points are the whole problem with a marquise

A marquise is the most fragile standard shape in jewellery, and the reason is geometry rather than any weakness in the material. Diamond is the hardest substance you will handle, but hardness is resistance to scratching, not to fracture. Bring the crystal to an acute point and you have created the one place where a modest knock can take a piece out of it.

Every marquise has two of those points. A pear has one. A round has none.

Why an ordinary claw makes it worse

On a round brilliant a claw sits on the girdle, which is a continuous band of reasonable thickness, and the pressure spreads. On a marquise the tip is the girdle at its most acute — and a conventional claw pressing on it concentrates load exactly where the stone has least material to resist it. It is the wrong tool applied to the wrong place.

The correct answer is a V-prong: a claw bent into a V that cradles the point from both flanks and closes over it, so the metal takes any impact and the tip is never struck directly. It uses no more gold, it does not obscure the stone, and it is the difference between a marquise that survives a decade and one that does not.

What to look at, on any marquise jewellery

Turn the earring so the points face you and check every one. Each tip should sit inside metal — a V, a cup, a bezel, something. A marquise with a bare exposed point is not a style choice; it is damage waiting for an occasion.

This matters more on earrings than on rings, in one specific way. A ring is knocked from the front, against desks and doorframes. An earring is caught laterally — in hair, in a scarf, in a jumper pulled over the head — and lateral force on an unprotected point is precisely what breaks one.

And when a point does chip, the repair is not a repair. A marquise cannot have a tip rebuilt; it has to be recut, which costs weight and usually changes the length-to-width ratio enough to be visible. Better to protect it.

Specification

• Stones: natural diamonds, marquise cut, 1.51 ct total
• Colour: D–F    Clarity: VS range
• Metal: 18K white gold

Elsewhere in marquise

Lighter, as a four-petal flower: the 0.78 ct marquise earrings. On a curve instead: the 1.41 ct marquise hoops. All in diamond earrings.

Buying from Antwerp

In stock at our workshop in the Antwerp diamond district. Shipped insured and boxed.