Collection: Asscher Cut Diamonds

An asscher is a square step cut with cut corners — essentially a square emerald cut, though with a deeper pavilion and a smaller table. It was created by Joseph Asscher in 1902 and became one of the defining shapes of the Art Deco period. It has the same long, open, stepped facets as an emerald cut, but arranged around a square outline, which produces a quite different optical effect.

The signature of the asscher, and the easiest way to recognise one. Because the four cut corners each throw a set of facets inward toward the centre, looking straight down into the stone you see a pinwheel or X pattern radiating from the middle — four blades turning around a central point. It is most visible in a well-cut asscher with good symmetry, and it is the detail people fall for.

Outline and depth. An emerald cut is rectangular and relatively shallow, giving broad horizontal flashes down its length. An asscher is square and cut deeper with a smaller table, which sends light further into the stone and back — so where an emerald cut mirrors, an asscher draws you inward.

Asschers generally have more visible depth and that distinctive windmill; emerald cuts have the longer, more elongating silhouette. Side by side the difference is obvious, and people rarely feel torn once they have seen both.

Same discipline as an emerald cut. Open step facets give a clear window into the stone with nothing to disguise an inclusion, so VS2 or better is the safe range. SI stones can be lovely if the inclusion sits where it does not interfere, but they must be seen and confirmed eye-clean rather than bought on the grade alone. We sight and select every step cut we hold for exactly this reason.

Step cuts reveal tint more readily than brilliants, and the asscher's depth can concentrate it further. G or better stays reliably white in platinum or white gold; H wants checking. In yellow or rose gold you have far more freedom, because the metal warms the stone regardless.

An asscher should read as square — 1.00 to 1.05. Above about 1.05 it starts to look like a short emerald cut rather than a true asscher, which is usually not what someone choosing this shape wants.

More than in almost any other shape. The windmill only resolves properly if the facets are precisely aligned and the four corners are evenly cut. Slight asymmetry and the pattern breaks up, the stone loses its centre, and it reads as muddled rather than crisp. Look for Excellent or Very Good symmetry, then look at the stone from directly above and check the pinwheel is clean.

Not in the way a brilliant does, and that is the point. An asscher gives you broad, deliberate flashes and remarkable depth rather than fragmented glitter. It is a shape chosen for architecture and clarity, not fire. In softer light it has real presence.

Solitaire is the classic — four claws over the cut corners, plain band, nothing competing with the geometry. It is how most asschers are worn and it suits the Art Deco lineage.

Side stones along the shoulders, particularly tapered baguettes, extend the straight lines of the stone into the band and make the whole ring read as one piece.

Three stone with baguettes or trapezoids either side is deeply Art Deco and one of the most striking ways to set an asscher. Two smaller asschers flanking a larger one is the purist version.

Channel set band suits the square outline perfectly — small square or baguette stones set flush between two walls of metal, running clean down each shoulder with no claws showing. Secure, hard-wearing, and geometrically right for the shape.

Art Deco inspired settings are where the asscher truly belongs — geometric galleries, stepped shoulders, milgrain detailing, calibré-cut side stones. The shape was born in that period and it wears the style more naturally than any other cut.

All made to order in our own workshop, built around your stone.

Art Deco ran from roughly 1920 to 1935, and the jewellery of that period has a distinct logic: geometry over ornament, symmetry, strong lines, contrast. The diamond shapes that suit it are the ones cut in that era or designed on the same principles.

Asscher and emerald cuts are the definitive Art Deco stones. Both are step cuts with clean straight facets, and both were at their most popular precisely when the style was. Nothing else sits so naturally in a Deco setting.

Baguettes and tapered baguettes are the period's signature side stone. Long, rectangular, step cut — they were used everywhere in the 1920s and 30s and they are what gives a Deco ring its architectural line.

Old cut diamonds — old European and old mine cuts — bring genuine period character. They were the stones actually being set at the time, and their softer, warmer light is quite different from a modern brilliant.

Trilliants, half-moons, trapezoids and calibré-cut stones were used to build the geometric patterns the style is known for, fitted precisely against the centre stone rather than simply flanking it.

Cushions and round brilliants work too, particularly in a stepped or geometric setting, though they read as less period-specific.

What matters as much as the stones is how they are set — clean lines, symmetry, milgrain edges, a raised geometric gallery, and often a contrast of white metal against dark accents. Original Deco pieces were made in platinum, and platinum still suits the style best.

This is work we do a great deal of, either as a new piece designed in the period style or as a remodel of an inherited ring. All made to order in our own workshop.

Roughly 5.5 x 5.5mm, against about 6.4mm across for a round of the same weight. Asschers are cut deep, so they face up smaller than the carat suggests — worth checking the measurements rather than the weight, and worth considering a slightly heavier stone than you might for another shape.

Because our images and videos are taken at high magnification — far closer than any human eye gets to a diamond, and far closer than the standard the stone was graded to.

Clarity grading is done under 10x magnification. That is the international standard: a grader with a 10x loupe decides whether an inclusion is there and how it affects the grade. Online photography routinely runs at twenty, thirty times life size or more, so you are seeing the stone at several times the magnification GIA used to grade it. An inclusion that fills your screen may be something the grader needed a loupe to find at all.

Colour matters too. A white or transparent inclusion — a feather, a cloud, a crystal without body colour — is far harder to see than a dark carbon spot of the same size, because there is little contrast against the diamond around it. Two stones can carry the same grade and look entirely different in the hand for that reason alone.

We photograph at high magnification deliberately. We would rather show you everything than shoot a diamond flatteringly and have you surprised later. But an inclusion that looks obvious on screen is very often invisible in the hand, at arm's length, on a moving finger, in ordinary light.

The grade tells you what is there. The magnification tells you where. Neither tells you whether you would ever notice it — that is a judgement we make face-up, under proper light, on every stone we hold.

Considerably, and it is worth knowing before you compare stones in different places.

Jewellery displays are lit to sell. Rows of halogen or bright LED spots directly above the case flood the stone with intense, concentrated light from every angle. That produces maximum sparkle and, at the same time, washes out inclusions — the scintillation is so busy that small imperfections simply disappear into it. A diamond in a well-lit display case is showing you close to the best it will ever look.

Daylight is the opposite. Soft, diffuse, coming from one direction. Sparkle is quieter, and anything inside the stone has nowhere to hide. Diamond grading uses controlled, colour-balanced daylight-equivalent lighting for exactly that reason — it is neutral, and it is reproducible.

Neither light is dishonest. But if you look at a stone under spotlights and then take it outside, you will see a different diamond, and most of a ring's life is spent in ordinary light.

When you view diamonds with us, you see them under professional diamond grading lights — the same neutral, colour-balanced lighting the laboratories use — and in natural daylight. No spotlit display case. If a stone looks right under those conditions, it will look right anywhere.

Always, and we would insist on it.

A single diamond on its own looks excellent. There is nothing to measure it against, so your eye accepts it. Put a second stone beside it and differences appear immediately that you would never have seen alone — one reads slightly warmer, one has more life, one throws broader flashes while the other glitters more finely.

This is how the trade buys, and it is the only reliable way to judge colour in particular. Colour grading is comparative by definition: graders work against a set of masterstones, not from memory. Your eye works the same way. Two stones a grade apart are obvious side by side and almost impossible to separate one at a time.

So we will put several in front of you. Sometimes that means you choose a lower grade than you came in for because you genuinely prefer how it looks, and sometimes it means you spend a little more because you can finally see the difference. Either way you will know why, which is the point.

No. Every diamond we sell is a natural diamond, and we've never dealt in lab-grown, simulants or treated stones.

A lab-grown stone is a manufactured product. It's grown in a reactor over a few weeks, then mass produced in unlimited quantities in any size or grade. That's the fundamental difference: a natural diamond took billions of years to form and exists in finite supply, while a laboratory-grown one is a commodity with no ceiling on production. It shows in the pricing — as capacity has scaled, lab-grown prices have fallen steeply and continue to fall, and there is no established secondary market for them.

What you're buying with a natural diamond is scarcity and origin. Rare, and natural. It's why we've never sold anything else. Read our full comparison of natural and lab-grown diamonds.

Our diamonds are independently certified, most commonly by GIA, with others graded by DCLA or HRD. The certificate is issued by the laboratory, not by us, and it accompanies the stone when it ships.

Yes. We are in Sydney's CBD and we see clients by appointment, so you can view stones side by side and compare them in person before deciding.

Just ask us. Finding a particular stone is a large part of what we do, and there's no obligation when you enquire. We'll do our best to source the finest quality natural diamond for you.

Our list is smaller than you'll see on some sites, and that's deliberate. Every diamond here is one we've looked at properly before listing it. Many diamond websites show tens or hundreds of thousands of stones drawn from shared trade lists — diamonds held elsewhere that the seller hasn't seen and won't see unless you order one. It looks like more choice, but nobody has assessed the individual stone, and two diamonds with the same details on paper can look quite different.

So if what you want isn't here, tell us what you're after and what you'd like to spend. We'll look for it, check anything we find ourselves, and only show you stones we'd be happy to recommend. If we can't find the right thing at your budget, we'll say so and talk through the options — sometimes a small change in colour, clarity or size makes all the difference.

Either way, you'll only ever be offered a diamond that we have complete confidence in recommending to you, and it will not just be based on the cheapest price.

Yes. Most clients select the diamond first and then the setting — either one of our existing designs or a fully custom piece made to your description or an image. Everything is handmade by our own jewellers.

Yes. We have many loyal customers all over Australia, and we're able to consult by phone and share photos and videos whenever possible.

Distance is not the obstacle people expect. We'll guide you through the options and select the finest quality diamonds and gemstones for you, so you can make an informed decision from wherever you are. The same applies to custom made engagement rings and jewellery — we'll talk you through it and keep you across it as it's made.

We deliver fully insured anywhere in Australia — every capital city, and regional and rural addresses just the same.

If you are able to come in, we'd always rather show you the stones in person — and if you're travelling to Sydney, appointments can be arranged on weekends.

Tell us the number you have in mind and what matters most to you, and we will show you the best stones we hold at that level. On an asscher we would rather you spent on clarity and symmetry than carat — the windmill is what you are buying, and it only appears in a well-cut stone. We are a diamond merchant, not a retail jeweller — we do not charge retail prices, and we source natural certified diamonds to suit your budget. Diamond Imports is a foundation member of the Diamond Dealers Club of Australia, and you will deal directly with Daniel throughout.