Antwerp has been very prominent in diamond cutting for five hundred years—the first written mention of diamond cutting is in Antwerp in 1550. Located in the Flemish section of the country, Antwerp is on the northwest coast of Belgium. In the very early years of European development, Antwerp was over-shadowed by Brugge in terms of international trading, but became the absolute center of Belgian trading when Brugge was struck by the plague.
Diamonds arrived in Antwerp when the Portugese discovered a direct route to India (the prime diamond producer in the world at those times). Diamonds had been taken to Venice by way of Aden, Ethiopia and Egypt or Arabia, Persia, Armenia and Turkey, but with the advent of the direct route to India, Antwerp was ideally situated to receive vast quantities of diamond from Lisbon and Venice.
In 1585, however, the Spanish attacked Antwerp. The arrival of the Spanish conquerors sent the diamond cutters scuttling to Amsterdam, whose liberal civil policies also accepted Jewish diamond-cutters fleeing religious prosecution. Thus, Antwerp was forced to become a non-player in the world diamond market. This was only a fleeting exodus, though, because when the Spanish pulled out of Antwerp, the diamond-cutters floated back in.
Today, Antwerp is the diamond capital of the world. More diamonds pass through Antwerp than any other city in the world, and the world’s most highly-regarded cutters reside in Antwerp. Antwerp holds a 60% part in the world diamond trade, and employs 27,000 people in the diamond business alone. What Antwerp specializes in is the cutting and polishing of high-quality diamonds. The examples of the most common cuts are below.
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