Engagement rings: from my mother's half carat to REALLY big diamonds

I met my then boyfriend/now husband in 1969, when he was an impov­erished uni student, and I had even less money than he did. When we were engaged, my mother kindly offered me her own engage­ment ring but I exp­lain­ed that I was a 1960s hippy and thought that dia­m­onds were way too bourgeoise. My mother assured me that I would event­ually come to love precious jewels, so she would wear dad’s prec­ious WW2 treasure until I was ready. Or leave it in the will for me, her only daughter. From my wedding on, I wore a plain silver wedding ring only.

On the day of my beloved mother’s death, I was at the chapel at the cem­etery, then at the graveside and then sitting shiva (7 days of mourning) with my heartbroken dad and all the family. During that first day, every treasure was stolen from my late mother, presum­ably by the relative (by marriage) who asked to have my mother eu­th­anised only four weeks earlier. The police, rabbi and care home staff never found my late mother’s diamond ring.

Above find an image of the engagement ring I would have worn, had I designed it myself. 

It is .5 of a carat.

Now read information from The Jewellery Editor about large, expens­ive and rare diamonds that belong to other people. Pink diamonds are extremely rare, with only 50 or 60 quality gems ap­pearing on the market each year. These blush-coloured stones frequently fetch 20-40% more per carat than the equiv­alent white diam­onds. 

Blue diamonds are am­ong the rarest in the world, accounting for only 0.0001% of all gems mined around the world. The numbers are further whittled down by the fact that only c1% of these stones display the colour tone and satur­ation that allow them to be classified as Fancy Viv­id. 

Pink Star

In 2013 the oval pink diamond Pink Star was cut from a 132.5 carat rough mined by De Beers in Africa 20 years ago. The Pink Star end­ed up as a 59.6 carat pink diamond of internal flaw­lessness, and was the largest Fancy Vivid diamond ever graded by the Gem­olog­ical Institute of America/GIA. At first it was sold to diamond cutter Isaac Wolf at Sotheby’s Geneva in Nov 2013. But the buyer failed to complete the purchase on his $83 million winn­ing bid, leaving the diamond to languish in Soth­eby’s inventory for 3+ years. Then tense telephone bidding war for the Pink Star took place between three interested parties. The proud new owner of the Pink Star diamond, the most expens­ive gem stone ($71.2 million) in the world, is Hong Kong jeweller Chow Tai Fook.

Set into a platinum ring flanked by two shield-shaped white diam­onds, the Graff Pink was previously owned by American jeweller Har­ry Winston. The final selling price in 2010 exceeded the pre-sale estimate of c$40 million, bought by jew­eller Laurence Graff for $46.2 million at Sotheby’s Geneva auction. The Graff Pink’s 24.8 carat emerald-cut Fancy Intense gem was fabulous. 

Graff Pink

Blue diamonds have dominated jewellery auc­tions in recent years, and the Oppenheimer Blue is the second most expensive jewel to sell at auction. This 14.6 carat emerald-cut Vivid Blue diamond was auct­ion­ed at Christie’s Geneva in May 2016, for $57.7 million. This particular indigo-coloured gem being named after Sir Philip Oppen­heim­er, a member of one of the world’s most influential and power­ful diamond families, for his wife. The Oppen­heimers control­led the De Beers Mining Co and Sir Philip oversaw the diamond sales cartel for 45 years until 1993. 

Oppenheimer Blue

The Cullinan is the largest rough diamond ever found, weighing an incredible 3,106.8 carat. Discovered in Cullinan South Africa in 1905, it was then gifted to King Edward VII but not set into a ring by ren­owned jeweller Verdura until the 1990s. The rough diamond was cut into 9 main stones and many small gems, the largest of which was the 530.4 carat Cull­in­an I/Great Star of Africa. The Cullinan I was set in the Sovereign’s Sceptre with Cross, an important part of the British Crown Jewels.

The 24.2 carat Cullinan Dream is the largest of the gems cut from the 122.5 carat rough blue diamond unearthed from the Cullinan Mine in 2014. The Fancy Intense blue diam­ond appeared at auction and sold for $25.4 million at Chris­tie’s New York in June 2016. 

Cullinan Dream

As a rough diamond, the Centenary Diamond weighed over 500 carat in 1986 in Premier Mine South Africa. It was later cut to a modified heart-shape, weighing 273.9 carat. It took a total of 154 days for their highly-skilled team to finish the re-cutting process and thankfully, the sacrifice in carat weight improved the colour and flawless clarity grade of this unique diam­ond. The diamond was insured at US$100 million at its unveiling in May 1991, loaned to the Tower of London where it was displayed for a number of years.  

Thankfully celebrity film and music stars don't need 500 carats for their engagement rings. For her second marriage to tycoon Aristotle Onassis, Jackie Kennedy only wore a large 40-carat marquise cut, VS2 clarity diamond that was cut from a 601-carat diamond. Kim Kardashian's first engagement ring, from Kris Humphries, was even more modest: 16.2 carats