Princess Eugenie married Jack Brooksband on October 12, 2018, after seven years of dating. Her ring contains a rare padparadscha sapphire, surrounded by diamonds. Steven Stone’s jewellery expert Maxwelll Stone revealed what makes the ring so special.
He stated: “The centre stone is an oval cut padpardscha sapphire, which looks to be around three to four carats.
“This is by far one of the rarest gemstones in the world, thanks to its unparalleled salmon hue.”
In fact, it is so precious and hard to come by that “many people haven’t even heard” of it.
“Strikingly beautiful” and “unique”, the stone even resembles the “colours of a sunset”.
The padpardscha sapphire is mainly obtained in Sri Lanka, and resembles the area’s peach coloured flowers.
“The term ‘padparadscha’ is derived from the Sinhalese word ‘padmaraga’ for ‘aquatic lotus blossom’, denoting an extraordinary combination of both pink and orange all rolled into a one of kind gemstone.”
Maxwell continued: “It is surrounded by 10 brilliant cut diamonds and two pear cut diamonds, which do a remarkable job of emphasising the sapphire, to create an eye-catching finish.”
Nothing but the best for the Queen’s granddaughter, no expenses were spared, as Maxwell estimated the ring to cost between £100,000 to £120,000.
But while the padparadscha stone itself is rare, coloured sapphires are rather common in royal engagement rings.
The National Sapphire Company stated: “If you look closely, it resembles the ring her father, Prince Andrew, gave to her mother, Sarah Ferguson, when he proposed in 1986.”
In an interview with Sarah Ferguson and then husband Prince Andrew, Sarah described the ring as “red” and “stunning”.
“I wanted a ruby. I didn’t want it, I’m very lucky to have it, but certainly it’s a lovely stone, and I’ve got red hair too.”
READ MORE: Princess Beatrice’s engagement ring is different from Kate & Meghan’s
Prince Andrew added: “And then the extra bits around the outside, we wanted something that was slightly unconventional.”
Not only does Princess Eugenie’s engagement ring mimic her mother’s in stone and colouring, sapphire was the choice of stone for the Duchess of Cambridge’s engagement ring too.
Steeped in history and sentimental value, Kate Middleton’s ring used to be the engagement ring of Princess Diana.
It featured a 12 carat Ceylon sapphire, and like the padpardscha sapphire, originated from Sri Lanka.
READ MORE: Camilla Cornwall has ‘unusual’ animal earrings worth £20,000
According to experts at Steven Stone: “The sapphire is a deep, royal blue, of AAAA quality, making it amongst the most valuable of its kind.”
It is estimated that the ring is worth £390,000 in the present day, although Prince Charles reportedly paid £47,000 for it in 1981.
Experts at Steven Stone explained: “Globally, the sale of blue sapphires increased by around 300 percent at the time, and even now, thanks to Netflix show The Crown, sales of sapphires continue to surge.”
As for Princess Eugenie’s engagement ring, Maxwell Stone commented: “Pink and orange tones have become increasingly popular for engagement rings recently, and can also be achieved using morganite as a less expensive alternative.”
Style icon Princess Diana has clearly set a trend and influenced generations of royal engagement rings, even causing non-royal brides-to-be to search for sparkly sapphires.