Antique Cushion Cut Diamonds Explained: Old Mine, Old European, and the Antique Cut Family

Picture a pillow: a square to slightly rectangular outline with softly rounded corners. Now facet it with fewer, larger facets than a modern stone. That is the antique cushion. The big, open facets return light in broad, warm flashes, a look often described as candlelit, instead of the tight, even glitter a modern brilliant is engineered for.

One distinction saves buyers a lot of confusion. A true antique stone is old: cut by hand, usually a century or more ago. An "antique-style" or "antique-inspired" cushion is a modern stone cut to that older look, and that is what most shoppers today, including Lab Grown buyers, are actually choosing. Either way, the name is marketing; the grading report typically reads "cushion brilliant" or "cushion modified brilliant," so confirm the shape and faceting there.

And yes, a Lab Grown Diamond can be cut in the antique cushion style. It is a real diamond, chemically and optically identical to a mined diamond, just faceted in the older pattern. More on buying it below.

"Antique cut" is an umbrella term for the faceting styles that came before precision tooling standardized the modern round brilliant. Two matter most.

Old mine cut

A cushion-shaped outline (soft square, rounded corners) with a high crown, a small table, and large facets. It is the direct ancestor of today's antique cushion, and when a jeweler says a stone has "old mine character," this is the look they mean.

Old European cut

Rounder than the old mine, with a small table and a large open culet, visible as a little circle at the very center of the stone. It is the forerunner of the modern round brilliant.

What the whole family shares: these cuts were shaped by hand for candlelight, not for lab-measured light performance, so they glow warmly instead of sparkling sharply. That is the honest framing for a buyer: an antique-style cut is a look chosen for character. A modern brilliant returns more light by design. Neither is a better purchase in any financial sense; a diamond is a love piece, and this choice is purely about which light you want on your hand.

Three cushion variants cover most of what you will see while shopping.

Two shopping notes. First, "crushed ice" versus "bold flash" describes the look inside a cushion's faceting: crushed ice reads as scattered glitter, bold flash as big distinct planes of light. If a listing does not say which a stone has, ask, and confirm the faceting description on the report. Second, an elongated cushion can look larger face-up per carat than a square cushion of the same weight because the same weight is spread across a longer outline. Our guide on which diamond shape looks biggest covers that spread effect across every shape, and the diamond shapes guide maps the full field.

Shoppers browsing vintage-inspired shapes usually meet the hexagon next. A hexagon cut is a six-sided diamond with straight, angular edges: a hard, geometric outline where the antique cushion is soft and rounded. They read completely differently on the hand even though both count as non-traditional, so knowing which instinct is yours (soft and romantic, or clean and architectural) does most of the choosing for you. The full breakdown lives in our hexagon cut guide.

In the geometric family, our signature cut is the Dutch Marquise: an elongated hexagonal cut diamond with straight, angular sides that taper to pointed ends, with a length-to-width ratio of roughly 1.5 to 2.0 (our certified hero stone measures 1.84, IGI). Dutch Marquise is a trade name, not a grading term; on an IGI report it may read "Hexagonal Modified Brilliant," so verify the shape on the report. Stienhardt controls the cut through a special factory relationship and hand-sets and finishes each ring in NYC.

Every look in this guide is available as a Lab Grown Diamond. A Lab Grown Diamond is a real diamond: the same carbon crystal, 10 on the Mohs hardness scale, the same optics as a mined stone, graded by the same independent labs. The full explainer is at what a Lab Grown Diamond is.

One phrase worth untangling: "lab cut diamonds." The lab part describes where the stone was GROWN. The cut, antique cushion, elongated cushion, hexagon, or anything else, is a separate choice faceted into that stone afterward. So there is no such thing as choosing between a "lab cut" and an antique cushion; you choose a Lab Grown stone, then you choose its cut.

A closely related look for buyers drawn to long, clean lines: the emerald cut, a rectangular step cut with cropped corners and long, straight facets that produce a clear, hall-of-mirrors effect rather than sparkle. The elongated emerald simply stretches that outline further. It sits at the opposite pole from the antique cushion (crisp geometry versus soft glow), which is exactly why comparing the two quickly tells you which buyer you are.

On buying: Stienhardt sells the stone and setting together, hand-set and finished in NYC, direct to consumer online. Every stone ships with its independent IGI or GIA report, and the report, not the listing name, is where you confirm the shape, the measurements, and the length-to-width ratio.

IGI and GIA are two independent diamond grading laboratories. Both grade cut, color, clarity, and carat, both are widely accepted, and a report from either is a reliable third-party record of a stone.

The current difference that matters for Lab Grown buyers: GIA moved Lab Grown Diamonds off the full 4Cs to Premium and Standard tiers as of 2025-10-01, while IGI still issues the full 4C report for Lab Grown stones (Source: GIA, 2025-10-01). If you want the granular color and clarity grades on a Lab Grown Diamond, an IGI report is the one to ask for.

For antique and fancy cuts specifically, the report is where a trade name becomes a checkable fact. "Antique cushion," like "Dutch Marquise," is a seller's description; the report states the measured shape and faceting behind it. That is not a reason for suspicion, it is just how grading works: certification exists so you can compare stones on one standard and buy with confidence. The full walkthrough is in our guide to reading a diamond grading report.