Celebration is in the air this year at the William Goldberg Diamond jewelry company as it marks the 25th anniversary of its patented 62-facet Ashoka diamond cut and the publication of “The William Goldberg Way,” a limited-edition book about its founder.
“The Ashoka cut is a very sexy stone,” said Eve Goldberg, who, as creative director, has run the company with other family members since her father’s death in 2003. “It’s elongated and has rounded corners, so there’s a softness and a brilliance to it. We put facets into it to give it more fire.”
To celebrate the Ashoka’s birthday, the company is developing an apprentice program on diamond cutting, scheduled to begin this summer. It is to be led by William Lopez, the master cutter who developed the Ashoka cut and has worked for the Goldbergs for more than 30 years.
It has also created two limited-edition Removal of Sorrow bracelets. Both have what Ms. Goldberg called “the look of the Ashoka, the shape,” but one is in 18-karat gold ($4,000) and the other has pavé diamonds outlining the facets, at $7,500. Profits from the sale of the bracelets, available on the company’s website, are to go to Bigvision, a substance abuse recovery program in Manhattan that Ms. Goldberg supports.
The original Ashoka cut, according to the company, dates to the mid-200s B.C., and was named for Ashoka, an Indian emperor who became a symbol of repentance and eliminating sorrow.
In 1988 a rare Ashoka-cut diamond came up for auction at Sotheby’s, and Saul Goldberg, now the company’s president, was sent to buy it. “I’ll never forget holding the diamond in my hand. It felt magnetic,” he said in a recent interview. His bid did not win, “but there was no way we could forget it,” he said. “I had the idea of trying to recreate the cut.”
It was not an easy task. “The cut is so unique,” he said. “It adheres to the proportions of the golden ratio and only 1 percent of the world’s diamonds have the elongated shape you need to recreate the cut and its 62 facets. It took us 10 years to perfect it.”
Mr. Lopez, who now has cut diamonds for half a century, took on the challenge. “We had a lot of trials and errors. But we slowly developed the Ashoka cut,” he said. “It’s got a subtle beauty.” He noted that it can take him as long as a month to create an Ashoka.
Today, the company holds the federal patent for the cut, the registered trademark for the name and the exclusive rights to distribute it, supplying jewelers around the world as well as creating its own collections.
The book — written by Jill Newman, an occasional contributor to The New York Times, and Jackie Caradonio — describes William Goldberg’s activities promoting the diamond trade and developing his business.
Of particular note was the city’s tribute to him in 2006, when the block of 48th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues was renamed William Goldberg Way.
As the book quotes Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York: “Willy called on me repeatedly not to help himself, but to help the community. That is why I had 48th Street named for him.”
The post It’s All in the Numbers as a 62-Facet Diamond Cut Hits 25 appeared first on New York Times.
