An 82-carat fancy-colored sapphire briolette necklace in 18K gold. Necklace and photo courtesy Michelle Valiante.

They may be enjoying a modern renaissance, but briolettes have a history that stretches back 800 years and across several continents.

These pear-shaped, multi-faceted gemstones arrived in Europe via India early in the 17th century. In those days, the West lagged behind much of the rest of the world both culturally and technologically. Everyday amenities such as indoor toilets were not yet commonplace (Elizabeth I of England was one of the first European monarchs to have regular access to a “water closet”), and luxuries such as spices, silks, and gems were highly coveted by aristocrats and landowners with a lot of cash and little or nothing to spend it on at home. The briolette immediately caught on with this moneyed minority, and in the centuries that followed the cut was conspicuously donned by some of history’s most prominent figures — among them Louis IV, Catherine the Great, and Marie Antoinette.

Once considered “cutting edge,” the briolette became passé with the coming of the Industrial Revolution. New cuts, most of them ancestors of today’s table-crown-pavilion styles, were introduced by economy-minded jewelry makers, who considered the briolette an inefficient use of gem rough. The Victorian age witnessed the revival of the briolette, but by the mid-20th century it had gone underground again, a victim of Depression downsizing and modern manufacturing methods.

Now that we have finally arrived in the science-fiction future envisioned in the 1950s and 1960s, we are looking back, and the briolette, like many things old and elegant, is popular once again. Wholesale gem dealers from Manhattan to Manhattan Beach, California, are seeing interest in this historic cut. Los Angeles-based Omi Gems proprietor Omi Nagpal, for example, reported a strong positive response to his offering of matched sapphire briolettes at the recent gem shows in Tucson, Arizona.

“We got a very good response from buyers at the show,” he says. “All they’re saying is, ‘Can we buy one?’ I think that’s the next [big] thing.”

Pramod Kotahwala of Universal Gem Traders in New York also reported strong interest in briolettes of multicolored sapphires.

Necklace and brooch in 22K and 18K gold with pearls, drusy, and a tourmaline briolette; © Judy Bettencourt, photo by Hap Sakwa.

The key factor in their popularity is their unique look. “If [customers] want exclusivity in something creative, they have to pay extra. Creativity has become very important nowadays,” Kotahwala says.

The appeal of briolettes for jewelers is not just their look, but their versatility as well.

“Briolettes are great for special occasions,” says Nina Ellwood of Bead Attitudes Inc., a maker of jewelry and beaded lace in Atlanta, Georgia. “They work really well as earrings and pendants because they dangle and catch the light. They are unencumbered by any setting except at the top, allowing you to see more of the gem than with other cuts.

“Briolettes also have a very wide appeal,” she adds. “Some people like them because they’re dressy, others because in some ways they’re more stone than jewelry. Quartz and amethyst briolettes are especially popular with New Age folks, who believe the crystals have healing powers which are intensified when cut into a briolette.”

A different look requires a different cutting method, and briolettes have their own peculiarities.

A briolette has no table, says faceter Meg Berry of Pala International in Fallbrook, California, who won a Cutting Edge award for a pair of tourmaline briolettes last year. Instead, the cut can be viewed from any direction, with no direction providing a better view of the stone than any other.

Briolettes have a different mission from more standard cuts, whose beauty largely depends on the degree to which they reflect light. By contrast, briolettes are supposed to possess an intrinsic beauty independent of their ability to return light to the eye. The difference is subtle, Berry says, but it has a big impact on the way briolettes are cut.

“The cutting technique is harder with a briolette because there is more free form,” she explains. “When working with a regular stone, you have parameters to follow, but with a briolette the pattern is set by nature. I use no special tools or handling equipment, but because of the shape, cutting skill is a big issue, especially when making matched sets. Everything you did on the first briolette has to be perfectly duplicated on the second. Holding a stone on the wheel for just five extra seconds can throw everything off, and the repercussions go all the way up the stone because you're dealing with a lot of long, thin cuts. Every mistake you make is magnified over much larger areas [with] a briolette than with a round stone. You have to know what you’re doing to do it well.”

Steve Green of Rough & Ready Gems Inc., a lapidary and briolette specialist in Littleton, Colorado, agrees with Berry's assessment. He says that briolettes are more difficult to cut than standard stones, because the facets are placed on a larger number of angles. This requires cutting parallel to the wheel, which can prove very tough since some machines aren't large enough to cut the facets that run along the length of the gem. Accidents will happen unless the job is approached with greater-than-average skill. A long and thin briolette, for example, can easily pop off a dopstick. Accurate drilling can also be a challenge, since the briolette’s tip presents a very small “target” surface area on which to initiate the hole.

Meg Berry’s award-winning “birdcage briolettes,” 29.63 carats of tri-colored tourmaline. Photo © AGTA/John Parrish.

The cutting machines employed by Green’s staff of six are all modified from basic models. Key to the operation is an ultrasonic drill, which is designed to put small-diameter, accurate holes into extremely hard materials. The drills are very hard to get in the United States, Green says, since most are made for strictly technical applications and cost as much as $100,000. Fortunately, less expensive models are now made in Taiwan and Japan that are specifically designed for lapidary use.

“The briolette has been described as ‘lunar brightness,’ as opposed to the more dramatic brightness of the sun,” Green says. “It’s more romantic than overpowering, which makes it kind of out-of-place in this day and age when everything has to be super-efficient and streamlined.

One of the great things about briolettes is that they make relatively inexpensive materials appear elegant. That is not to say you can’t use costly stuff, only that it isn’t absolutely necessary. Lively and colorful is the criteria you’re actually looking for, which means that you can use sapphires, tourmaline, quartz, or nearly anything else.” He makes briolettes from over 50 different materials, everything from aquamarine to green beryl, heliodor, Mexican fire opal, and even dinosaur bones.

Durability is a big plus, as soft or brittle materials run an increased risk of chipping and other damage.

Rough & Ready briolettes range from approximately 6 mm to 40 mm in length, and 3 mm to 15 mm in diameter. Most have a round cross section, though a few are made with an oval cross, the latter breed being slightly flattened and almond-shaped. Wholesale prices for most faceted briolettes range between $40 and $1,000, the higher figure representing extremely fine examples. Pairs fetch around $40 to $300 faceted, $20 to $100 smooth. Rough & Ready’s prices and size range are typical throughout the industry, although it still isn’t common for gem dealers to carry briolettes at all.

Despite their popularity, briolettes are not usually mass-produced. According to Green, Berry, and others, discount stores do not often trade in them, and many jewelry stores won’t sell them unless they employ a custom jeweler on site.

“Mostly it’s a designer piece,” says Henry Langenohl of Henieli International Inc., a wholesaler of fine colored stones in New York. “Briolettes are unique, and at the moment quite fashionable. They were even more so in the past, but with the slowing economy the demand is slipping for them. Economies fluctuate, of course, and so do fashions. What is popular today may not be tomorrow. Then all of a sudden yesterday’s fashions are popular again. What comes around goes around.”