When a royal couple gets engaged, count on seeing a gorgeous ring. Although diamonds are the hardest, most durable stones, there are plenty of diamonds in the world. Sapphires are rarer, which is why royalty often chooses a sapphire engagement ring. For fun, let's look at several famous royal rings:
Kate Middleton (2011), now Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge - A 12-carat sapphire with 14 diamonds that once belonged to fiancé Prince William's mother, Lady Diana Spencer (1981), is a favorite. The ring was picked from Garrard's catalog by Diana and reportedly was inspired by a sapphire brooch that Queen Victoria received on her wedding day from new husband Prince Albert that today is often worn by her great, great-granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II. I adore blue sapphires, and you don't need to be engaged to a prince to wear a royalty-inspired knockoff. Trust me! (In a window of a Madison Avenue jewelry store near my home sits a 12-carat Ceylon sapphire and diamond ring exactly like the royal engagement ring. I'm going to walk over there, wearing all my cheap imperfect jewelry, to try it on. Heck, yeah!! It's the one, I wanted to buy.😊)
Queen Elizabeth II (1947) - To make his betrothed, Princess Elizabeth of York's engagement ring, Prince Philip's mother, Princess Alice (née of Battenberg) who married Prince Andrew of Greece, gave her son one of her tiaras, a wedding gift she received from Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra (Romanov) of Russia. Princess Alice was Tsarina Alexandra's niece. Diamonds were removed from the tiara and reset into an engagement ring. The ring is a round 3-carat brilliant stone flanked by smaller pavé-set diamonds mounted into platinum.
Princess Eugenie of York (2018) - Queen Elizabeth II's granddaughter selected a 3-carat padparadscha pinkish orange glow sapphire, surrounded by diamonds for her engagement ring. It is an ultra rare sapphire. (Not that anybody asks, yet I always prefer blue.) Her own mother, Sarah Ferguson (1986) received a red ruby with diamonds engagement ring commissioned by Prince Andrew as a nod to her red hair. Newspapers wonder if Eugenie is trying to carry on a family color tradition. Only Eugenie knows.
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| Sarah's ruby and diamond engagement ring |
Although sapphires are my favorite gems, I still prefer a traditional round-shaped (called a Tiffany setting) diamond as an engagement ring ... a BIG one, surrounded by smaller diamonds! Do you have a favorite stone.
