Grace Kelly is well-known for her timeless jewellery collection, which mirrored her ageless movies – such as ‘The Country Girl’, ‘Rear Window’, ‘To Catch a Thief’ and ‘High Society’.
Director Alfred Hitchcock was also a great fan of brilliant jewellery and even introduced the Oscar Winning actress to Cartier – the brand’s designer at the time, Alfred Durante, saw the pair gazing at the decadent jewellery on display at the Fifth Avenue Mansion in New York, years before the actress became a princess.
Engagement ring experts at Steven Stone have revealed everything there is to know about the Oscar winning actresses legendary Cartier engagement ring has gone down in history as one of the world’s most expensive pieces of jewellery.
How did Grace Kelly and Prince Rainer meet?
Hitchcock unintentionally played matchmaker for Grace Kelly when he cast her in the role of Frances Stevens in his 1955 production ‘To Catch A Thief’. Grace Kelly met her soon to be fiancé, Prince Rainier III of Monaco on 6th May 1955, during the 8th Cannes Film Festival as she was promoting her movie.
She wore a sophisticated floral-print dress for the meeting. Grace Kelly and Prince Rainer stayed in touch for months afterwards through exchanging letters.
What do we know about Grace Kelly’s engagement rings?
Shortly after, Prince Rainier visited Grace Kelly in her hometown of Philadelphia that Christmas, where he proposed with a jewel from Cartier. On 5th January 1956 at a press conference in her family’s home in Philadelphia, the happy couple announced their engagement to the press, allowing paparazzi to take close-up photos of the engagement ring
The precious piece of jewellery the Prince had made included heirloom red rubies and white diamonds to represent the colours of Monaco’s flag. Grace wore a champagne coloured dress of wool with gold metallic dots and gold collar clips and earrings for the monumental occasion.
However, the Hollywood Royal turned real-life princess received yet another alluring engagement ring which she showcased shortly after the press conference.
While filming the movie High Society, fans saw the new ring enter the picture. It’s thought that the movie was to be the last that Grace would star in before she retired and moved to Monaco, and when Prince Rainier heard that the costume designer was going to source a fake ring for her character, he instead bought her one to also wear as a second engagement ring.
Grace Kelly’s second engagement ring is worth £30,000,000
Feast your eyes on this incredible jewel. Introducing the huge 10.48-carat Cartier emerald-cut engagement ring, flanked by two baguette-cut side stone, set in platinum.
This astonishing jewel wasn’t as delicate as Grace’s ruby and diamond ring and didn’t demand a close-up to be seen. She wore it in MGM publicity photographs for ‘High Society’ – immediately making it become one of the most talked about engagement rings in the world.
Our experts estimated the value of the ring to be around £30,000,000 ($41,484,000) on today’s market. To reiterate, this fact makes this masterpiece of an engagement ring by far the most expensive one in history to date.
Trading the glamorous life of Hollywood for the royal Monaco Grace Kelly married Prince Rainer of Monaco in 19th April 1956. The eye-watering religious ceremony was held in the Cathedral of Monaco with about 600 guests and over 30 million TV viewers watched the historical nuptials from their homes.
Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier were married for 26 years and had three children together (Stephanie, Caroline, and Albert II). Tragically, in 1982, the famous actress suddenly suffered a stroke while driving, which resulted in a car accident that led to her death at the age of 52.
Grace Kelly’s engagement rings now remain in the House of Grimaldi.
“The fact that Grace’s original engagement ring was designed by Cartier and features heirloom rubies, which look to be around 1.5 carats, along with 1.5 carats of diamonds, suggests that it could be worth over £15,000 today.
Although Grace Kelly received her incredible emerald cut diamond engagement ring shortly after – which is now one of the world’s most famous pieces of jewellery – the rubies featured in her first ring are likely to be very rare and of the finest quality. Rubies are also soaring in value right now, so it’s likely the value of this ring will increase even more over time.
Worth £30,000,000, Grace’s second engagement ring is by far one of the most astonishing engagement rings in history. The huge 10.5 carat diamond in the centre of the ring is flawless, which goes without saying as it was designed by Cartier. Even to this day, Grace Kelly’s ring inspires women around the world, making the emerald cut diamond one of the most popular.”
zack stone, managing director, steven stone
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