Idar-Oberstein, located in southwest Germany, is home to some of the world’s best gemstone cutters. With over 500-year history and experience of gemstone mining and lapidary, the cutters still shine on the international stage by virtue of high quality, exquisite craftsmanship, and the pursuit of excellence.
Tradition and treasure
As one of the famous families in the region, the Munsteiner family was led by the master cutter Bernd Munsteiner who developed his own cutting style - fantasy cut. This exclusive technique broke the long-standing traditional way of faceting and shocked the whole industry at that time. His son, Tom Munsteiner, has inherited the family tradition for 16 years and continues to carry forward the family treasures.
According to Tom Munsteiner, in the Middle Ages, several agate, jasper, and quartz mines were found in Idar-Oberstein, thus made this area a gemstone cutting centre where local companies developed the technical know-how to process rough crystals. Since then, local gemstone cutters have taken a leading role in producing gemstones with prominent quality.
Regarding the expertise of German cutters, owner of W Constantin Wild & Co, Constantin Wild said different from the general cutters specialised in a single area in other places of the world, cutters in Idar-Oberstein process all kinds of gemstones with different methods, from traditional craftsmanship to high technology.
Alexander Kreis, gemstone cutter and designer of Sonja Kreis which has 200 years of history in the town, expressed that Germans have the soul of an engineer and the tendency for perfection, which is why they are able to achieve the highest-precision proportion, polishing and finishing in gemstone cutting. “This is made possible only with the combined efforts of the wisdom of gemstone cutters for generations, modern tools, techniques and machinery,” he said.
Nature of cutting
When asked about the interpretation of gemstone cutting, Tom Munsteiner told Hong Kong Jewellery: “In my eyes, gemstone cutting is the art to turn a natural gemstone into something new, brilliant and fascinating.” He emphasised that it requires a high degree of technical and gemmological knowledge, together with rooms for creativity and new ideas in order to make gemstone cutting more professional.
For W Constantin Wild & Co, on one hand, gemstone cutting is simply a production process; on the other, it also comes with the cutter’s passion for the raw materials created by nature. Cutting to perfection seems to be the order of the day. For us, nevertheless, we tone down the sense of perfection to bring a more natural touch to the finished stones, Constantin Wild expressed. “Perfection is of course a possible aim; but for us, what counts more is emotion,” he said.
He and his family always adhere to turning raw materials into finished products with fascinating colours, numerous facets and uniqueness. “As the fourth generation of the business, I select all stones in person. This individual and personal style is the recipe for the success of the Constantin Wild label,” he said.
Art with creativity
Cutting and polishing of precious stones is not just a matter of craftsmanship, according to Alexander Kreis. “It is also philosophical. I give gemstones personality and I create art,” he elaborated on the art of gemstone cutting. His designs communicate his interpretation of beauty, the love between a special rough and himself, the way he directs the light passing through a crystal with different reflections, and the harmony between perfection and imperfection.
To reflect the emotional and artistic elements in cutting, he constantly looks for new structures and techniques. He said, every kind of cutting, classic or modern, is distinctive. “I am happy to bring diversification and new culture to the tradition-bound gemstone cutting industry.”
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