Hearts and arrows
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Hearts and arrows (H&A) is a cutting style for round brilliant diamonds modelled after a pattern popularized by the EightStar Diamond Company. The pattern is a series of eight gray arrowheads when viewed from above the crown with one eye and eight heart shapes when viewed from below the pavilion. H&A viewers eliminate incoming light from certain angles and cause the pattern to appear black or very dark gray. In order to display this pattern flawlessly, the diamond must have excellent symmetry of its major facets, and particular lengths of its lower girdle facets.
Diamonds with a H&A cut command a price premium in the US market, reflecting the generally greater time needed to produce them and the greater loss of weight from rough, as well as their generally better overall cut quality.
While the major facets must be very symmetrical, there is considerable room for variation in cut quality and appearance from the "minor" facets.
The timeline of the evolution of Hearts and Arrows is:
- 1977-1984 Ken Shigetomi et al perform research to develop the FireScope.
- Mr. (Professor?) Okuda contracted by Ken Shigetomi develops a tool based upon Shigetomi's research to help examine diamond cut, this device eventually becomes the FireScope.
- 1985 First EightStar diamond cut by Higuchi for Takanori Tamura in Tokyo after research using the Firescope and a worldwide search to find diamonds which gave a perfect result in it found almost none out of tens of thousands examined.
- 1987 First "copy" of EightStar by Ken Shigetomi of Tokyo, called Apollon 8.
Shigetomi's company fails because of quality control problems.
- 1988 Kinsaku Yamashita, A salesman for Apollon 8 buys the the remaining Apollon 8 diamonds, develops relationships with the Apollon 8 subcontractors and renames the cuts Hearts and Arrows. Kinsaku Yamashita also patents the Heart and Arrow viewer and copyrights the words Heart and Arrow.
- 1990 EightStar Diamond Company USA founded, initially as offshore cutting operation for the Japanese company
- 1997 A Cut Above and Hearts on Fire brands in the US, described as hearts and arrows.
The different cuts each have somewhat different appearances and balances of features and aren't complete, literal copies of the EightStar cut.