Princess Eugenie’s proposal was a “complete surprise” and took place by a lake. The King’s niece admitted she cried when boyfriend Jack Brooksbank got down on one knee to ask her if she would marry him. Jack presented Eugenie with a beautiful “rare pink padparadscha sapphire of about three carats” and the princess described it as a “perfect moment”. Her ring features many similarities to her mother’s, Sarah Ferguson, and Express.co.uk spoke exclusively to experts at The Diamond Store about the two engagement rings’ designs.
Princess Eugenie’s ring “is surrounded by 10 round diamond solitaires, plus two pear-shaped diamonds on each side where the ring’s band meets the centre setting,” the experts said. “The ring’s setting and band are yellow gold. We estimate its cost to be around £100,000.”
Having diamonds around a bigger gem in the middle makes the ring look more expensive, and the diamond experts said “the diamonds probably around £10,000,” with “most of this ring’s cost would be attributed to the rare sapphire”.
“So without the diamonds, the ring would probably cost around £90,000.”
In terms of the sapphire, “Padparadscha sapphires are the most expensive of all sapphire colours. This is because they exhibit a rare pink-orange colour that is very hard to find”.
The experts added: “All sapphires are formed from a mineral called corundum. Corundum is colourless in its purest form. But if trace elements are present during its formation, they can change colour. For instance, when iron and titanium are present, corundum becomes a blue sapphire.
“Padparadscha sapphires are coloured by iron and chromium, which is a trace element combination that rarely occurs in nature. This results in a striking mix of pink and orange hues.
“Gemmological laboratories, unfortunately, don’t use set grading criteria to determine the qualities of coloured gemstones, so it’s hard to pin down exactly what is the ‘best’ padparadscha sapphire colour. But most gem experts would agree that a padparadscha sapphire should exhibit a light to medium
colour with an even mix of pink and orange hues – just as we see in Princess Eugenie’s engagement ring!”
As for Sarah Ferguson’s engagement ring, she was presented with a “three-carat, oval cut Burmese ruby, surrounded by 10 diamonds”. Similarly to Princess Eugenie’s ring, Fergie’s ring “is set in yellow gold”.
In terms of value, “when it was new, Sarah’s ring was estimated to cost £25,000. Today with inflation and adding some historical value it would be around £70,000”.
Like Princess Eugenie’s engagement ring, Sarah’s has a diamond surrounding the ruby, “the diamonds probably cost about £8,000 so without them, the value of the ring would currently be around or little over £60,000”.
The experts also revealed how rare Burmese rubies are: “All rubies are made from a mineral called corundum, which is the same mineral that sapphires are formed from. But red corundum is called ‘ruby’, while all other corundum colours are called ‘sapphires’.
“The red colour of rubies is caused by chromium trace elements. The more chromium is present, the more intense the ruby’s red colour. The Burmese ruby is one of the most valuable ruby variations, because of its extremely saturated red colour, caused by a high chromium content in the ground in the Myanmar region where it is mined.”
The Diamond Store experts also discussed the similarities in these rings: “Both gems feature a large, faceted, oval-cut, coloured gemstone in the centre, with numerous diamonds set in a ‘halo’ or ‘petals’ around them.
“Although this type of gemstone ring design started emerging as popular in rings already during the Georgian and Victorian eras, we can safely say that Princess Diana was the trend-setter here when it comes to influencing the look of the other two royal rings that followed in a relatively short period of
time afterwards!”
Princess Diana was given a “12-carat blue sapphire, surrounded by 14 solitaire diamonds” for her engagement ring from Charles.
“When Prince Charles proposed to her in 1981, its original price was said to be just under £40,000. Today, partly due to 41 years of inflation, but also because of its historical importance, the ring is worth about ten times more, around £400,000,” the experts revealed.
“The obvious difference is in the size of the centre stones, with Diana’s/Kate’s ring being a whopping four times bigger than Fergie’s and Eugenie’s engagement rings.
“Finally, Sara Ferguson and Princess Eugenie’s rings both feature a classic yellow gold band, whereas Princess Diana at the time chose a much more contemporary-looking ring in white gold.”
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