Gemstone Glossary

Pavilion

Part of a gemstone lying benath the girdle

Pendeloque

Also: pear. drop shaped stone (with crown,pavilion and table facet); do not confuse with briolette or teardrop.

Plate

Stone plate without girdle facets. Mostly glued into settings to produce planar surfaces

Play of colour

The various colours of opal when viewed in reflected light, not to be confused with opalescence

Pleochroism

Multi-colouredness; an optical phenomenon of some but not all doubly refractive stones. Caused by the splitting of light into two rays. These rays take different paths through the gemstone, are absorbed differently and thus of different colours. The human eye usually perceives a mixed colour. Only in very strongly pleochroic gems like e.g. tourmaline, the different colours can be observed by the unaided eye (see dichroscope) when viewing the stone from different angles.

Portuguese cut

Cut with 161 facets in it´s classical form. Because of the high number of facets the portuguese cut is mostly used with large stones having a high pavilion (lower part)

Princess cut

Originally developed for diamond baguettes and squares; a combination of a modified step cut and brilliant cut; very lively

Profile cut

Pentagonal cut that, when viewed from the top, resembles the side view of a brilliant cut diamond