topic Re: Another Royal Engagement in Community Chat

Another Royal Engagement

Sweet_Serenity — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 18:25:25 GMT

Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank. Padparadscha Sapphire Diamond Ring.

Re: Another Royal Engagement

meallen616 — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 18:30:28 GMT

Re: Another Royal Engagement

Krimpette — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 18:34:15 GMT

There's another post on this a little further down showing a close-up of the ring. Gorgeous!

Re: Another Royal Engagement

Oznell — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 18:34:48 GMT

Nice! Continuing the tradition of colored stones and diamonds as engagement rings. (Eugenie's mother, Sarah Ferguson's ring, was famously a blood red ruby surrounded by diamonds).

Re: Another Royal Engagement

Caaareful Shopper — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 18:39:16 GMT

Quite a year for the royal family — a baby and two weddings.

👶🏻 💍 💍

Re: Another Royal Engagement

MickD — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 18:47:20 GMT

Cute couple!

Re: Another Royal Engagement

Oznell — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 18:51:15 GMT

That's interesting. I went in search of other pictures of Eugenie's padparadscha sapphire ring, and on at least one site they were saying it was remarkably similar to Sarah's. The accompanying picture showed Sarah Ferguson's ruby, but it was all faded out, and looked almost pink like her daughter's sapphire.

But all pictures and descriptions at the time showed Sarah to have a traditional, "pigeon's blood" red ruby. Andrew said at the time he wanted to give her something that would remind him of her "red" hair!

The structure of both rings is similar though. Both very beautiful. Padparadschas apparently come in a range from tangerine to Eugenie's lovely pinky blush color. I've only seen the more orangey ones, but I'm really liking this.

Re: Another Royal Engagement

Sweet_Serenity — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 18:56:29 GMT

Re: Another Royal Engagement

stevieb — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 20:15:16 GMT

@Oznell Sarah's ruby was of the deep orange-red color while her daughter's looks more pink. Both are lovely. I'd seen a better picture of Sarah's ring earlier, but, of course, can't find it now, but this one isn't bad.

Re: Another Royal Engagement

stevieb — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 19:17:55 GMT

Of course, the real show stopper was the Duchess of Windsor's emerald engagement ring... I mean, if you like that sort of thing...

Re: Another Royal Engagement

Bri36 — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 19:26:42 GMT

Pretty color. Oval is not my favorite cut though.

I haven't seen Andrew and Sarah together in a long time...

Re: Another Royal Engagement

Oznell — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 19:43:21 GMT

Ha, that emerald was not too shabby, was it, @stevieb? That setting in the gold was actually the second mounting she had for her engagement ring. The first was in platinum, and was very Art Deco looking, as befitted the time of her engagement in the Thirties. I think the gold one with surrounding diamonds was the Fifties re-design.

People with enormous rings like that and the incomes to match, seem to love to re-configure their rings to reflect the times. They're both eye-poppers, but I think I prefer the simpler original version. (Apologies, I don't know how to post pictures, or would show the original version.)

Re: Another Royal Engagement

Sweet_Serenity — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 20:12:10 GMT

Wallace Simpson- End of her life taken advantage of. Several excellent books "That Woman" Goes into detail. Never can get passed the fact! David & WS supported Hitler, Grand scheme against England! Thank God! He abdicated! Truthfully, He never wanted to be King.

Re: Another Royal Engagement

Oznell — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 20:17:27 GMT

Well, I got curious, and went in search of the original platinum engagement ring of the Duchess. (I can never get enough of the lore of engagement rings, and royal ones too.) But all images I could google showed only the yellow gold one, although there was brief text referencing the original.

This goes to show that the Internet is not as comprehensive as you'd like to think!

But in several of my books on royal style, they talk about the two settings, and show the original. It was plain platinum with extra wide flared prongs, and a baguette either side of the huge emerald. On page 163 of "The Windsor Style", they show it and say that Wallis hung on to the empty platinum setting and kept it with her jewels... Maybe she kept it because Edward had had it inscribed "We are ours now".

They don't say what he had inscribed on the Fifties mounting after he had lived with her a couple of decades, ha.

Re: Another Royal Engagement

stevieb — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 20:22:00 GMT

@Oznell I came up with this picture, but it looks like a different emerald to me... If anything, this ring looks more contemporary, so I don't think this is it...

Re: Another Royal Engagement

Oznell — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 20:42:35 GMT

Oh, that's sweet of you to hunt, @stevieb, but that's not it. It was extremely plain, with just the baguettes on the side. No halo of diamonds around it, and a very thin band. I think it was perfect, since it let that enormous center rock take center stage!

I wish I could magically reproduce my Suzy Menkes book here, since the Internet is no help in finding the right image!

My favorite royal engagement rings so far are: the one the Duke of Luxembourg gave to his betrothed (big diamond with lots of other diamonds, very vintage looking), Princess Grace's big, simple sparkler, surprisingly, Sarah Ferguson's ruby with diamonds, and I love that Tony Armstrong-Jones gave Princess Margaret a ring with a rose design b/c her middle name was "Rose":

http://orderofsplendor.blogspot.com/2010/06/flashback-friday-royal-engagement-rings.html

Edited to add: And I like Charlene, wife of Prince Albert of Monaco's ring, since I love pear shapes, despite the controversy about its actual size and whether it was photoshopped to look bigger, or something!

Re: Another Royal Engagement

stevieb — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 20:43:05 GMT

@Oznell I think she's wearing it in this picture. Of course, you can barely see it... I saved the picture and enlarged it so I could see the ring... It's a bit hazy, but yes, this is a very simple setting...

Re: Another Royal Engagement

stevieb — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 20:45:29 GMT

Camilla's ring isn't too shabby either...

Re: Another Royal Engagement

Oznell — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 20:46:43 GMT

You are a talented detective, @stevieb! I saw that image of Wallis also. She is wearing the ring in that photo. Why, oh why did they colorize it-- it sort of makes the stone look like a sapphire-- or is that just my computer?

Re: Another Royal Engagement

Oznell — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 20:47:52 GMT

Yes, Camilla made sure she got a good ring! Love the step cuts...