5.90ct Victorian old-cut diamond starburst pendant

About this piece

Silver-topped, gold-backed construction turns up again and again in fine Victorian diamond jewellery, and for good reason: silver takes a brighter polish and shows off pale stones better than gold does, while the gold backing keeps the setting from tarnishing against skin — a bit of practical engineering hiding under all that sparkle. This pendant puts the combination to properly showy use, its domed, openwork body built as a starburst and set with 44 old-cut diamonds, twenty larger stones doing the heavy lifting and twenty-four smaller ones filling in around them, totalling roughly 5.90 carats.

Old-cut diamonds — meaning cushion or old mine cuts, worked by hand rather than by the mathematically precise machinery that eventually gave us the modern brilliant — throw light in a softer, warmer way than contemporary cuts, which is part of why collectors seek them out specifically rather than settling for a modern replacement stone. The diamond-set bail suspending the pendant is a nice touch of consistency rather than an afterthought, and the piece survives with its original fitted case in velvet and silk, the sort of detail that turns up far less often than dealers would like and makes a real difference to a piece like this.

Condition notes

Great antique condition. Some scuffing to box.