When Sotheby’s first introduced the public sale of a 24.78-carat fancy intense pink emerald-cut diamond with rounded corners, flanked by two shield-shaped white diamond facet stones and set in platinum, in 2010, it was anticipated to promote for between $27 million to US $38 million.
A lot to the public sale home’s delight, the ring, which had beforehand been offered to its former proprietor by jeweler Harry Winston within the Nineteen Fifties, offered to diamond vendor Laurence Graff for $46 million, making it “the most costly single jewel ever offered at public sale on the time.” Naturally, the fortunate new proprietor named the magnificent beast the Graff Pink.
Whereas we firmly imagine that neither the dimensions nor the worth of an engagement ring has any bearing on the price of a wedding proposal, the historical past of how we got here to affiliate them with betrothals is undeniably fascinating.
Contemplating this bought us occupied with another attention-grabbing engagement rings and proposal tales, which, for higher or for worse, have grabbed our consideration previously.
Right here is the true story of the primary diamond engagement ring — plus 4 extra bizarre and notable proposal tales:
1. The primary diamond engagement ring was given to Mary of Burgundy by Archduke Maximilian of Austria in 1477
Legend has it that in 1477, Archduke Maximilian of Austria — the long run Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I — was the primary man to current his beloved, Mary of Burgundy, with a diamond engagement ring (apparently on the recommendation of his courtroom counsel).
“Maximilian,” the story goes, “set off for Burgundy after arranging a proxy marriage. However he was an impoverished suitor, due to Austria’s penchant for conflict. So, it’s mentioned, as he traveled by his place of birth, villagers pressed upon him presents of gold and silver that enabled him to safe a diamond ring for Mary.”
The gold ring, set with diamonds within the form of a letter M, is presently housed within the Museum of Profane Treasury, a part of the Museum of Superb Arts in Vienna.
The 2 remained married till Mary’s demise — which sadly got here solely 5 years later after she fell from her horse. She was simply 25 on the time.
Regardless of their roots courting again to the fifteenth century as an emblem of life-long love, diamond engagement rings solely grew to become well-liked within the U.S. within the early nineteenth century.
They first started gracing the index fingers of American ladies within the 1910s and Nineteen Twenties, when diamond rings got here to function a form of collateral meant to switch the protections ladies had beforehand been provided by “Breach of Promise to Marry” legal guidelines.
Engagement rings misplaced favor because the financial system suffered through the Thirties, however that each one modified in 1947. Copywriter Frances Gerety coined the phrase “A Diamond is Without end” for what would turn out to be the De Beers diamond firm’s broadly well-liked promoting marketing campaign, encouraging post-Melancholy period males to reinforce their betrothals with dear, sentimental rings and shock proposals.
Similar to that, a star of a sustaining development was born.
2. On a much less romantic word, the engagement ring that needed to be “handed”
Simon Hooper, 28, from the UK, wished to suggest to his girlfriend. Sadly, Hooper selected to steal a hoop somewhat than purchase one.
Whereas the jeweler was distracted, Hooper shortly swallowed the ring, which police later discovered by passing a steel detector over his abdomen. To not be deterred from his mission, when confronted with the proof of the ring within his very being as proven in an X-ray picture, Hooper insisted what they had been seeing was merely a chunk of foil he’d by accident ingested.
Hooper was jailed for 12 weeks. As for the ring, police staged a three-day vigil exterior of Hooper’s jail cell awaiting its … emergence from his chosen technique of storage.
3. The one that just about bought away
Nothing says romance like a proposal on the world-famous bridge, proper?
As he knelt on one knee and opened the ring field whereas proposing to his girlfriend on the Brooklyn Bridge, Don Walling might solely watch in horror because the ring slipped from his fingers and into the site visitors under. In a second of admirable dedication, Walling sprang into the street in the hunt for the ring … and located it!
In fact, the victory meant having to dodge motorists, pedestrians, and a suicide prevention squad who thought Walling was making an attempt to kill himself as he climbed down onto the principle street.
The band was tarnished and bent, however the diamonds, and the couple’s relationship, remained intact.
4. The mysterious Chopard Blue Diamond ring
Pure blue diamonds are extraordinarily uncommon, and the Chopard Blue Diamond ring options an oval-shaped 9-carat heart stone set in an 18-carat white gold band encrusted with smaller diamonds.
Whereas pictures of this unhealthy boy are laborious to come back by, as is any file of present possession of this explicit gem, the late Princess Diana was gifted one thing related upon her engagement to Prince Charles: the 12-carat blue oval sapphire surrounded by fourteen diamonds that adorn the finger of the Duchess of Cambridge (and future Queen of England), Kate Middleton.
5. Wal-Mart to the rescue
Since we’re such suckers for heartwarming information, we’ll throw in one other lost-and-found story for you.
After Arkansas newlywed Haley Reep Wagnon reported that she’d misplaced her 1.26-carat diamond engagement ring in a Wal-Mart car parking zone, police scoured surveillance movies and noticed a 6-year-old lady selecting it up from the bottom.
“I noticed just a little lady choose up the ring within the car parking zone, however I do not suppose the lady was making an attempt to steal the ring and I do not suppose the household together with her was even conscious,” Detective Todd Crowson advised reporters on the time. “She most likely did not even know that it’s a actual ring.”
They had been capable of establish the lady and her household from footage of the household car, and just some days later, the household fortunately returned the misplaced ring to a delighted and much-relieved Wagnon.
Denise Ngo is a contract net author and editor specializing in love, courting, and relationships. She is the Managing Editor of Loverish and a author for PopSci.
