Masters of the Stone
While gem cutting is often viewed as a trade, several historical and contemporary masters have elevated it to high art.
1. Peter Carl Fabergé (1846–1920)
Famous for the Imperial Easter Eggs, Fabergé's workshops mastered hardstone carving. His artisans created astonishingly lifelike miniature flowers and animal sculptures from chalcedony, obsidian, and nephrite.
2. Bernd Munsteiner (1943–)
Munsteiner radically changed faceting in the 1970s. He invented the "fantasy cut," deliberately breaking the rules of traditional symmetrical faceting to carve abstract, geometric "negative facets" into the back of large aquamarines and ametrines.
3. Wallace Chan (1956–)
A modern master from Hong Kong, Chan invented the "Wallace Cut," a technique that uses internal dentistry drills submerged in water to carve a three-dimensional face into the back of a gemstone. Combined with precise faceting, the face reflects outward in multiple profiles simultaneously.
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