sunday ring – Page 3

The Sunday Ring: The Elizabeth Taylor Diamond Ring

10.30.2016 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

The Elizabeth Taylor Diamond Ring (Photo: FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA/AFP/Getty Images)

Yesterday, we marveled at the diamond tiara worn by the late, great Elizabeth Taylor. Today, we’re looking at one of the most spectacular diamonds in her collection: the Elizabeth Taylor Diamond, an remarkable stone set in a classic ring.

Photo: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

For decades, the gem was known as the Krupp Diamond. It was owned by Vera Krupp, the second wife of Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, the famed German industrialist (and convicted war criminal). Alfried and Vera divorced in 1957, but she kept the spectacular diamond until her death in 1967. It was sold at auction the following year with other items from her estate. The diamond itself is an absolute marvel. Weighing a whopping 33.19 carats, the Asscher-cut diamond is a rare Type IIa diamond, which places it in the same class as stones like the Cullinan I and the Koh-i-Noor (both of which are part of the British crown jewels).

Elizabeth Taylor wears the Krupp Diamond (Photo: Express Newspapers/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Richard Burton purchased the diamond at auction in New York for his wife in May 1968. The piece cost him just over $300,000. In true Burton-Taylor fashion, he presented it to her aboard their yacht, which was docked on the Thames in London. Elizabeth later called the Krupp one of her favorite pieces of jewelry, even though Burton bought her an even bigger diamond in 1969: the pear-shaped Taylor-Burton Diamond, which weighs a staggering 68 carats. Elizabeth sold the Taylor-Burton diamond in 1978 after divorcing Burton for good, but she kept the Krupp diamond for the rest of her life.

Photo: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

After Taylor’s death in 2011, the ring was sold at auction. Renamed the Elizabeth Taylor Diamond, the piece fetched more than $8.8 million. It was sold to E-Land, a South Korean conglomerate that owns and operates numerous retail brands, hotels, shopping malls, restaurants, and theme parks.

The Sunday Ring: Queen Elizabeth II’s Engagement Ring

10.23.2016 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

Queen Elizabeth II’s engagement ring (Photo: Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

The world of royalty is filled with fabulous engagement rings, but today’s ring — Queen Elizabeth II’s engagement ring — may be my favorite of them all. It’s classic, it’s balanced, and it has a Romanov backstory. What could be better than that?

Photo: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

The engagement ring is made of platinum; it features a round three-carat brilliant stone flanked by smaller pavé-set diamonds. Prince Philip commissioned it from a London jewelry firm, Philip Antrobus, in 1947. The diamonds themselves, however, had a much longer royal history.

Photo: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Prince Philip may have been the grandson of a Greek king, but his family had gone through all manner of exile and turmoil by the time he married in to the British royal family. But although he wasn’t particularly wealthy, he was marrying a future monarch, and the engagement ring he gave her needed to be significant. His mother, Princess Alice, came to the rescue. She gave him one of her tiaras, a piece she had received as a wedding present nearly half a century earlier, so that it could be dismantled. Several of those diamonds could then be used to make Elizabeth’s ring, as well as her wedding present, a gorgeous diamond bracelet.

Alice wears the now-dismantled tiara

The tiara wasn’t just any old wedding present, though: it was the diamond and aquamarine tiara that Alice had been given by Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra of Russia. Alexandra was Alice’s aunt; Nicholas was a first cousin of the groom, Prince Andrew. The tiara also came with an accompanying suite of jewels.

Queen Elizabeth II wears her engagement ring last week at Windsor Castle (Photo: Dominic Lipinski – WPA Pool/Getty Images)

So when you see the gorgeous engagement ring glittering on Elizabeth’s left hand, remember that it’s not just important because it’s the engagement ring of a queen — it’s an engagement ring made of diamonds that came from the last Romanov imperial couple. It’s harder than you might think to catch a glimpse of the ring, even though she wears it daily, because she’s almost always wearing gloves at public appearances. But next time you see pictures of her at palace audiences — or, annually, at the Windsor Horse Show in May — look out for the sparkling ring winking from her left hand.

The Sunday Ring: The Sky Blue Diamond Ring

10.16.2016 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

The Sky Blue Diamond Ring (Photo: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images)

Catherine the Great’s bow necklace isn’t the only sparkling wonder being auctioned at Sotheby’s next month. The auction house will also offer the Sky Blue Diamond, an incredible gemstone set in a strange and compelling ring. The bauble may not have a royal provenance, but it’s certainly fit for a queen.

Photo: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

The diamond is a marvel: it weighs 8.01 carats, and its color has been determined to be “fancy vivid blue.” David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby’s International Jewelry Division, describes the diamond: “The Sky Blue Diamond is of a wonderfully clear celestial blue, presented in an extremely elegant square emerald cut – in my view, the most flattering of all the cuts for a coloured diamond. This important gem will, I am sure, captivate all collectors of exceptional gemstones.”

Photo: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

The unusual setting in which the Sky Blue has been placed was created by Cartier. The baguette-set elements that surround the blue diamond are a little spidery for my taste, but it’s certainly innovative and eye-catching.

Photo: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

Several major blue diamonds have been auctioned at Sotheby’s in recent years, all of them fetching enormous sums of money. The auction estimate for this piece is equally staggering: $15-25 million.