The marquise diamond has 56 facets and is elongated with pointed ends. The marquise cut is also referred to as boat shape or navette. It is said that France's Louis XIV wished for a diamond to be cut to reflect the smile of the Marquise de Pompadour.

Celbrity Choice

If this is your favourite style of stone, you are in good company as Michael Douglas gave a 10 carat antique marquise diamond to Catherine Zeta-Jones with an estimated value of $2 million. However to make sure you buy the best marquise diamond you need to take some factors into consideration. The most popular choice for cut diamonds is the round brilliant cut. It is difficult for the marquise cut to compete with the round cut in terms of brilliance and sparkle and is often badly proportioned. Often this cut can be considered too thin or too fat, whilst the ideal proportion is 2:1.

Watch out for the “bow tie” effect

You may have come across the description “bow tie effect” in relation to the marquise cut and also, to some extent, oval and pear shapes. This is something that the diamond cutters work hard to minimise but is not always possible to avoid completely. Dark areas appear across the middle of the width of the diamonds and resembles a bow tie – hence the “bow tie effect”. This is hardly noticeable with well proportioned diamonds.

Prices

The upside of purchasing a marquis diamond is the price. They are generally 10 – 20% less than the equivalent round brilliant cuts. Some jewelers may try and charge more however this can be because it takes much longer to find a matching pair due to the varying shapes of this cut. You may wonder why, if it is so labour intensive matching marquise cut diamonds combined with the reduced sparkle and bow tie effect, do jewelers sell these diamonds. Beside the fact that they are very popular, the cutter has to retain it’s maximum weight. The cutter looks at the rough stone to determine what shape will give the largest carat.

Marquise diamonds have been a popular choice for many years and as long as you take note of the points above and buy from a quality jewelers your purchase will be one you are glad you made. A marquise diamond ring can also help elongate your finger and make it more slender. They also look stunning as shoulder stones for a larger centre stone, or in a cluster around a major diamond.