sunday ring

The Marie Curie Daffodil Ring

12.18.2016 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

The Marie Curie Daffodil Ring (Photo: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

In 2008, a special ring was offered for sale by Sotheby’s: a diamond and peridot cocktail ring shaped like a daffodil. The piece had been specially created to raise money for a very important cause: care for those with terminal illnesses.

Photo: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

The ring was made by Charlie Pragnell for the George Pragnall jewelry firm, which is located in Stratford-upon-Avon. The ring was crafted to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Marie Curie, a charitable foundation which provides nursing resources and home care for those with terminal illnesses. You’ll probably recognize the charity’s name: Marie Curie was a scientist who did pioneering work with radioactive substances, and she was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize. Sadly, her work involved exposure to radiation that would later lead to her own death.

Photo: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

The Marie Curie charity was founded in the UK in 1948, and its initial funds came from the donation of a diamond engagement ring. Sixty years later, Pragnell designed this diamond ring in the shape of a daffodil, the charity’s logo, to help fund the charity’s work. Here’s how Sotheby’s described the piece in the lot notes for the auction: “It is crafted in 18 carat yellow and white gold, centring on a rare oval Fancy Vivid Orange Yellow diamond weighing 0.82 carats, its petals pavé-set with near-colourless diamonds, with subtle green peridots to the stem and leaf.”

Photo: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

The sale of the ring raised £50,000 to fund the work of Marie Curie Nurses in the United Kingdom. I love when beautiful things can help to support important causes. So many of us are thinking about ways to help make the lives of others easier and brighter during this holiday season — if you could design a piece of jewelry to support a cause, what would it be?

The Sunday Ring: Crown Princess Victoria’s Engagement Ring

12.04.2016 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

Crown Princess Victoria’s Engagement Ring (Photo: Patrik Osterberg-Pool/Getty Images)

Sometimes, in the world of jewelry, simple is better. A prime example of this: the engagement ring that belongs to Crown Princess Victoria, the future queen regnant of Sweden.

Photo: LEIF R JANSSON/AFP/Getty Images

Victoria received the ring from her future husband, Daniel Westling, in 2009. The white-gold ring is set with a round brilliant-cut diamond solitaire. Above, Victoria shows the ring off during the couple’s official engagement press conference. It’s said that the ring may be the work of Bolin, official court jewelers of King Carl XVI Gustaf.

Photo: Patrik Osterberg-Pool/Getty Images

Daniel’s decision to present Victoria with a diamond engagement ring was a break from Swedish tradition. In past generations, royal couples had exchanged simple gold bands to mark their engagements. Even Victoria’s father, King Carl XVI Gustaf, has a golden engagement ring.

Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

But this time, the Swedes followed the newer Western tradition. Above, you can see Victoria’s ring sparkling on her birthday in 2009, almost exactly a year before her wedding.

Photo: Michael Campanella/Getty Images

On their wedding day, Daniel gave Victoria an additional jewel: her wedding band, which is studded with diamonds. She usually wears the two rings together on her left hand. One problem with the simple setting is evident here: the ring tends to slide off to the side of her finger rather than staying centered.

Photo: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

Here’s another look at the pair of rings from Prince Oscar’s christening. You can see the details of the simple, effective setting from this angle.

The Sunday Ring: The Shirley Temple Blue Diamond Ring

11.27.2016 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

The Shirley Temple Blue Diamond Ring (Photo: Donald Bowers/Getty Images for Sotheby’s)

When you’re one of the biggest movie stars in the world, and you’re not even a teenager yet, you still need major jewels. Little Shirley Temple’s jewelry box was already home to today’s incredible blue diamond ring before she turned thirteen.

Shirley Temple, ca. 1940 (Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In 1940, Shirley Temple was a twelve-year-old megastar. She’d just completed The Blue Bird, an 20th Century Fox film made to compete with The Wizard of Oz, which had been released by MGM the previous year. To celebrate the end of filming, Temple’s father, George Francis Temple, bought her a remarkable gift: a platinum ring set with a 9.5 carat blue diamond. The brilliant-cut stone is officially classified as a “fancy deep blue” diamond, and in its original 1940 setting, it is flanked by four rows of baguette diamonds. George Temple reportedly paid $7,210 for the ring. (The movie, unfortunately, flopped. But who cares when you’ve gotten a blue diamond out of it?)

Photo: Donald Bowers/Getty Images for Sotheby’s

Temple kept the ring for the rest of her life, even wearing it as she was sworn in as a delegate to the United Nations in 1969. Temple died in 2014, and the ring was purchased privately afterward from her estate. That buyer decided to put the ring up for auction at Sotheby’s in March 2016. The lot included an alternate ring setting for the diamond, made by Tiffany in 1972.

Photo: Donald Bowers/Getty Images for Sotheby’s

The auction estimate for the ring was set at $25 million – $35 million, but ultimately, the ring failed to sell. At the New York auction, bids opened at $19 million, but they only reached $22 million, several million dollars shy of the ring’s reserve price.