Kate Middleton’s blue sapphire and diamond engagement ring
Credit: Getty
The Gist
Royal engagement rings can be incredibly valuable and intensely personal: some are family heirlooms, some have more personal significance.
Queen Elizabeth, Princess Diana, and Kate Middleton each have an interesting backstory to their rings, and their cost might surprise you.
Kate Middleton’s engagement ring, passed down from Princess Diana, originally cost between $37,500 and $50,000 and is now valued at more than $500,000.
When a member of the British Royal family gets engaged, the Palace traditionally releases a formal portrait that shows off the happy couple, and the gorgeous engagement ring that goes along with it. These pieces of jewelry aren’t just a symbol of love: they’re often bespoke, deeply symbolic pieces that represent dynastic history, not to mention the family’s access to the most famous jewels in the world.
These royal rings are passed down through generations and take on intense symbolic meaning for the wearer. They can also be deeply evocative of a royal’s personal style, from the simple but classic ring that Prince Philip gave to Queen Elizabeth II to Princess Diana’s large sapphire sparkler, which might be the most recognizable piece of royal jewelry of all time. Surprisingly enough, some items on this list weren’t all that expensive at the time, even though their value has drastically increased since then.
Wondering which royal received the most expensive engagement ring? Here’s how the rings of Queen Elizabeth, Princess Diana, and Kate Middleton measure up.
Queen Elizabeth’s heirloom piece is actually one of the least expensive royal engagement rings.
Queen Elizabeth’s bespoke diamond engagement ring
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In 1946, Prince Philip and then-Princess Elizabeth told their families they wanted to marry, but Elizabeth’s father asked them to postpone the announcement until Elizabeth turned 21 in 1947. After a month-long family holiday at Balmoral, Philip quietly presented the future queen with a bespoke and highly personal engagement ring.
He’d gone to Philip Antrobus of Bond Street for the design: The platinum ring consists of a 3-carat round brilliant-cut diamond flanked by 10 smaller pavé diamonds, five on each side. The stones came from a tiara belonging to Philip’s mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, which was reportedly given to her as a present by Tsar Nicholas and Tsarina Alexandra of Russia when she married. The remaining diamonds were made into a matching wedding bracelet for Elizabeth.
According to WWD the ring is valued around $250,000 today, which was equivielent to about $15,000 in 1947. This actually makes it one of the least expensive royal rings of the past 100 years and about half as expensive as the other ring on this list. But considering its historical significance and royal prominence, it’s arguably priceless. Elizabeth apparently never removed her ring throughout her 73-year marriage. And it had an indelible influence on bridal jewelry trends. According to Tatler, the solitaire style still accounts for 85% of all engagement ring styles.
Since the Queen’s death in 2022, the ring has not been seen publicly. It’s not considered part of the Crown Jewels, so experts speculate that it was either passed down to Princess Anne or preserved for one of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s three children.
Princess Diana’s engagement ring came from a catalogue, but it’s modeled off a historic royal brooch.
Princess Diana wearing her sapphire and diamond engagement ring
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Then-Prince Charles and Diana Spencer had been dating for six months when they announced their engagement in 1981. The 12-carat oval Ceylon sapphire was sourced from Sri Lanka; it is set in 8-carat white gold and surrounded by 14 round-cut solitaire diamonds. Her ring wasn’t actually bespoke, which was rare and a bit controversial for royal jewelry at the time. It had been purchased from the jeweler Garrard’s catalogue, meaning, theoretically, members of the public could purchase the exact same piece.
The ring design was inspired by a brooch that Prince Albert had made for the future Queen Victoria in 1840; It’s stayed in the Royal family, and Queen Elizabeth wore the piece frequently throughout her reign. Charles selected a number of rings to present to Diana as options and apparently chose the sapphire sparkler because it reminded him of his family’s brooch. Diana apparently selected it because it matched her blue eyes and also because it reminded her of her mother’s engagement ring. Charles reportedly purchased the ring for between $37,500 and $60,000, which would be equivalent to about $140,000-$225,000 today.
The piece became incredibly popular after Diana debuted it and is still considered the late royal’s most famous piece of jewelry. There are differing reports about which of Diana’s sons inherited the ring after her death. One former royal butler said it passed to Prince Harry, who offered it to William before William proposed to Kate in 2010. But Harry refuted the story in his memoir, Spare, saying it had always belonged to William.
Diana’s ring passed to Kate Middleton — and it’s now worth more than $500,000.
Kate Middleton wearing her blue sapphire and diamond engagement ring
Credit: Getty
Speaking of! William proposed to Kate on a trip to Kenya with his mother’s ring, a moment Kate later described as a “total shock.” In a TV interview after the official announcement, William explained, “I had been carrying it around with me in my rucksack for about three weeks…I literally would not let it go, everywhere I went I was keeping hold of it, ’cause I knew this thing, if it disappeared I’d be in a lot of trouble.”
William said that he chose it to honor his mother’s legacy, noting that since “she’s not going to be around to share any of the fun and excitement of it all — this was my way of keeping her sort of close to it all.” At the time, the ring was too big for Kate, so the couple took it to royal jeweler G. Collins & Sons, who added platinum beads to the inside of the band so as to resize it without altering the original design.
When Kate debuted the sparkler, it had a predictable “royal effect”: sapphire engagement rings surged in popularity, and in 2020, her ring was voted the world’s most popular engagement band (in addition to the beautiful blue color, sapphires are symbolic of love, truth, loyalty, commitment, and protection). Adjusted for inflation and accounting for the obvious significance of the piece, the engagement ring is now reportedly worth around $520,000.
Read the original article on InStyle