Pear Cut — The Modified Brilliant Teardrop
Pear Cut — The Modified Brilliant Teardrop
A 58-facet hybrid of round brilliant and marquise, used widely in solitaires and pendants
The pear cut, also called the pendeloque or teardrop cut, is a modified brilliant facet arrangement in which the outline combines a rounded end and a pointed tip into a symmetrical teardrop. It is one of the standard fancy-shape cuts in the diamond and coloured-stone trades, sitting alongside the marquise, the oval, and the heart shape as the principal modified-brilliant outlines. The cut typically employs 58 facets in the standard configuration, though variant counts in the 56 to 71 range appear in older European cutting and in modern proprietary variants.
Facet structure
The standard pear cut places a 25-facet crown on the upper section, a culet at the base of an 8-facet pavilion, and a girdle in 24 to 32 segments depending on the cutter's preference. The crown features a kite-shaped table at the centre, with main facets radiating to the rounded end and concentrating into the point. The pavilion mirrors this geometry below the girdle. The cut's brilliance derives from the round-brilliant lineage at its rounded end and from the marquise lineage at its pointed end; both contribute to the cut's overall light return.
The 58-facet count is the most common; some cutters add additional culet or pavilion facets to manage light leakage in larger sizes, and the so-called modified pear cuts produced for proprietary brands may use distinct facet counts and patterns. The fundamental geometry — symmetric teardrop outline with brilliant-style faceting — remains constant across the variants.
Proportions
Length-to-width ratio is the principal proportion variable. The trade convention places well-proportioned pear cuts in the 1.50:1 to 1.75:1 range, with stones below 1.40:1 appearing too short and stones above 1.80:1 appearing too elongated. Specific applications have specific preferences: pendants and drop earrings tolerate longer ratios well; solitaire engagement rings benefit from ratios closer to 1.55:1 or 1.60:1 for visual balance on the finger.
The bow-tie effect — a dark band running across the centre of the stone — is a recurring concern in pear cuts and other elongated brilliants. Well-cut pears minimise the bow-tie by careful pavilion-angle work and by appropriate length-to-width selection; poorly cut stones show a pronounced dark band that detracts from the stone's brilliance. Laboratory grading at GIA, AGS, and HRD includes commentary on bow-tie severity in their fancy-shape diamond reports.
Symmetry and finish
Pear cuts are particularly demanding of symmetry. The point must align with the centre axis of the rounded end, the shoulders must be evenly curved, and the wings (the lateral facets connecting the rounded end to the point) must be symmetric about the long axis. Asymmetric pears — with a deflected point, uneven shoulders, or one wing flatter than the other — read poorly even when polish and clarity are otherwise good. GIA and AGS grade pear cuts on symmetry as part of the standard report; Excellent and Very Good symmetry grades are the practical thresholds for fine-jewellery use.
Use in jewellery
Pear cuts appear widely in solitaire engagement rings, in pendants, in drop earrings, and in side-stone arrangements alongside larger central stones. The conventional wearing orientation places the point facing the fingertip in rings and downward in pendants and earrings, though some designers reverse the orientation deliberately. The cut works in diamonds and in all the major coloured stones; pear-cut Burmese rubies, Kashmir sapphires, and Colombian emeralds are recurrent in high-jewellery commissions.
Carat weight in pear cuts is distributed differently from round brilliants of the same diameter; for any given face-up appearance, a pear cut typically retains more weight from elongated rough than a round brilliant would, making the pear an efficient cut for working with elongated rough material. This is part of why marquise and pear cuts are common choices for cutters working with crystals that would lose substantial weight in a round-brilliant cut.
In the trade
Pear-cut diamonds and coloured stones trade across the full quality spectrum, from commercial calibrated goods up to single stones reaching seven and eight figures at auction. Buyers should pay particular attention to the symmetry grade, the bow-tie commentary on the laboratory report, and the length-to-width ratio relative to the intended use. For coloured-stone pears, the standard origin and treatment considerations apply alongside the cut-specific assessments.