I thought I'd post the question I emailed you about the other day.  I've noticed that a lot of brown diamonds that you've posted here and also ones I've seen locally, are really deep relative to length/width.  Is this a characteristic of brown diamonds, meaning is that how cutters bring out more color or is it a concidence or some completely different reason?

True that, very good question!

Let's first start with the fact that most brown diamonds come from India.

Traditionally, diamonds from India were a really poor cut clarity and color.  Even the colorless diamonds that I would see from India in those years were dull.  When I say 'traditionally' I'm talking about the 1970s, 1980s and into the 1990's

It was very rare to see well cut diamonds coming out of India during those years.  Also, many brown diamonds were (and still are) cut from very dull rough.  There's still a lot of really cheap, ugly diamonds cut in India.
For example, we could buy melee (small small diamonds) for less than $100 per carat.
Really fine diamonds of these sizes can go for up to $750 per carat on the wholesale market.  The bottom and is still there.  When you see really cheap commercial jewelry advertised, these are the type of diamonds they use.

However, over the past 10 years or so, the quality of the cut of diamonds coming from India at the top end, has increased dramatically.  Still, one must search very hard to find the best diamonds cut in India.

In terms of depth, it's true that many brown diamonds are cut deeper than colorless diamonds.
In many cases, that does help them keep the color.  A high depth ratio, by itself, does not necessarily mean that the diamond will be ugly or badly cut.  It will look small for its weight, but many times the price makes up for this..

David, thanks for all that good information!  That makes sense!