By Gabriella Morales-Casas #Theprincipated
Of all the jewels that Princess Diana wore during the 16 years that she belonged to royalty, we have realized that sapphires are the pieces that she used the most in various varieties of accessories, even more than pearls – a jewel historically associated with the divinity of royals—and that the emeralds, which were also part of his ensemble.
We remember the best looks de Diana accompanied by three sets of spectacular sapphires and a solitary piece that is still “alive”.
The Engagement Sapphire
As we know, Charles’s engagement ring to Diana was a sapphire, which Catherine later received from William, the couple’s son; It was originally Harry’s, but he generously passed it on to his brother.
It was created by Royal Garrard jewelers and is made up of a 12 carat sapphire set in diamonds. Is named Ceylon Blue Sapphire and presumably comes from Sri Lanka, as revealed in 2011 by Abdul Rahman, president of the association of gemologists of Africa. Currently, its cost without the diamonds and platinum mounting amounts to almost a million dollars.
Garrard launched the ring for commercial sale at the time and it has been speculated if the model was part of a catalog. It is also said that Charles chose it because it resembled a Queen Victoria brooch, or that it was Diana herself who chose it. Nobody really knows; the only certainty is that it was put back in vogue when Prince William gave it to Kate Middleton as an engagement ring, the same one she has been wearing ever since.
Now, all over the world and in different jewelers, they call it “the ring of the Duchess” or “the ring of Diana”.
The sapphire brooch
Because sapphires were Diana’s favorite stone “because they matched her eyes,” says one of the princess’s biographers, Tina Brown, “and those were hers, not the queen’s.” Another of its most iconic pieces is also made of this precious stone: the sapphire and pearl choker known worldwide for having accompanied the famous “Travolta” dress at the unforgettable dance at the White House in 1985.
It is made up of three strands of cultured pearls, linked by a sapphire set in diamonds. The funny thing is that the sapphire was a brooch that the queen mother gave her when she married Charles; Diana only wore it once as such, because she used to put it in her pearl choker.
He used it again in 1994 also in the United States at a Vanity Fair party with the famous revenge dress, so called because that same night Prince Charles confessed his infidelity on British television, while Diana shone with a great cleavage, showing her leg and her sapphire choker; He last wore it in 1996 at the Met Gala in New York.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GruES7VuMXA
There is no doubt that it is a statement piece by itself: both by the power of the sapphire alone and by the use of pearls; not all necks and faces look so good in a choker and even less so wide. The way Diana paired it was with her double sapphire earrings set in diamonds, which were no small thing either. Her short hair, either wavy or more towards the pixie, plus her long swan neck allowed her the luxury of wearing both jewels and looking regal.
The arab suite
But they are not all the sapphires of Princess Diana, one of the less known but spectacular is the set of Arabian sapphires. So named because it was a wedding gift from the Saudi Arabian royal family, crafted by Asprey Jewelry especially for her.
It is a choker from which hangs a blue sapphire surrounded by marquise-cut diamonds, a bracelet, earrings, the ring and a brooch in the shape of the Saudi palm tree and Muslim swords. All white gold and diamonds.
The funny thing about this set is that Diana redesigned it: she used the bracelet to make herself a blue satin hair band royal and remade the earrings and ring, which are now the property of William and which he in turn gave to Catherine.
The eighties sapphires
This was not the only gift from an Asian family; Diana received as a gift from the Sultan of Oman a set of diamonds and sapphires during the tour that the Princes of Wales took through the Persian Gulf in 1986. The style is extremely 80’s in a mood futuristic. The necklace is made of five diamond threads that pass under the sapphire cut as a crescent moon that acts as a tunnel for the necklace.
Since 1995 the princess wore it for the last time at the premiere of Haunted In London, he has not been seen again by his daughters-in-law Catherine and Meghan, nor by his goddaughters, who also received part of their inheritance in jewelry.
Either the Saudi Arabian suite or the Ceylon Diana ring were the brainchild of Asprey jewelry, but you don’t have to go to England or the Middle East to purchase one; The Mexican jewelery house Peyrelongue Chronos has a collection of fine diamond and sapphire jewelery very much in the Diana style for this 2021, which will make you feel like a princess of Wales.
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