Vintage engagement rings are more unique and one of a kind compared to modern wedding jewelry. Gemstone cuts, additional smaller diamond halos or shanks, intricate undergalleries, and classic designs comprise these older and more elegant designer pieces. This makes them more classic and timeless than most rings.
To discuss the qualities and features of these vintage rings, skip over here for more details.
Here are our Top 10 Celebrities who own some of the most powerful vintage engagement ring pieces.
1. Katy Perry
It was Valentine’s Day 2019 when her then beau, Orlando Bloom, proposed to his pop princess and sweetheart Katy Perry. The vintage ring Orlando proposed with features a 2-carat ruby, dead center, with a flower-like halo of 8 round-cut diamonds, crowned on a golden band.
Flower-themed ruby and diamond rings are quite uncommon today and are often spotted on vintage pieces. This cute and very endearing custom vintage piece is still in the minds and hearts of the classic love team of Katy Bloom. It remains one of the more memorable, unique, and celebrated rings in Hollywood.
2. Catherine Zeta-Jones
Before her dazzling million-dollar wedding to Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones got the proposal of her life from her lifelong beau in 1999. He proposed with a Fred Leighton-designed ring featuring a 10-carat marquise-cut diamond in an east-to-west configuration with prong structures. Smaller diamonds adorn its beautiful platinum pavé ring.
This vintage piece uses the classic marquise cut, which is a throwback to 18th-century royal jewelry styles. It also features a unique east-west setting that creates a sleeker horizontal profile.
3. Penelope Cruz
Penélope Cruz’s and Javier Bardem’s love story started with an unforgettable engagement. At the center of it all was a gorgeous 3-carat blue sapphire with a halo of 12 smaller diamonds sitting atop a gold band.
This ring design and composition are similar to Princess Diana’s legendary vintage ring, and it looks just as mesmerizing. The original design came from Queen Victoria’s sapphire and diamond brooch, which was in an east-west setting. The flower oval ring continues to be the talk of the fans, the press, and the celebrities.
4. Milla Jovovich
English filmmaker Paul W.S. Anderson proposed to model, actress, and singer Milla Jovovich with a beautiful, unique, and antique engagement ring in 2003. It features a central white diamond flanked by a yellow and pink diamond, arranged vertically in a stack of three. This creates an interesting vertical stack design with lavish and beautiful leaf motifs and outer halos on a pavé gold band.
5. Kate Middleton
One of the more prominent and high-profile vintage jewelry pieces in our list is the one owned by Princess Kate Middleton. This powerful, iconic engagement ring features a 12-carat sapphire, surrounded by a flower halo of 14 diamonds.
Heavy royal tradition surrounds the legendary ring. It once belonged to Princess Diana, given to her by then-Prince Charles in 1981. The design came from the heirloom royal sapphire and diamond brooch owned by Queen Victoria and was later passed on to Queen Elizabeth.
6. Mary-Kate Olsen
Mary-Kate Olsen owns an iconic, antique jewelry masterpiece that her now ex-husband, Olivier Sarkozy, proposed to her back in February 2014. It is a unique vintage piece from the 1950s, featuring a 4-carat European cut diamond embedded in a gilded inner diameter of sapphires and an outer halo. The outer golden halo features an array of marquise-shaped diamonds on a rope-design multi-band gold ring.
7. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley
Victoria’s Secret supermodel Rosie Huntington – Whiteley’s enthralling engagement ring from her beau Jason Statham features a brilliant-cut, flawless 5-carat diamond from designer Neil Lane. It sits atop a four-prong structure with a decorated undergallery and a pave-shank platinum band. Jason proposed to her in January 2016, and they have been engaged ever since.
8. Meghan Markle
Meghan Markle’s engagement ring is technically vintage, with two heirloom diamonds from Princess Diana’s personal collection, and a centerpiece 3-carat cushion-cut diamond found by Prince Harry in Botswana. he also helped design the first version.
This trio of vintage and rare diamonds creates a beautiful ring profile, originally set in a yellow gold band. Its first version featured work from Cleave & Company. They later modified it into a micro-pavé band with additional design and modifications by Lorraine Schwartz.
9. Zoe Kravitz
Actress and singer Zoë Kravitz is no stranger to impeccable style, just like her rockstar dad, Lenny. It shows in her choice of jewelry, too. Ex-husband Karl Glusman proposed to her with an antique engagement ring that she picked out herself, a Georgian-style creation she saw on The One I Love NYC’s Instagram page. It features an elegant, artsy silver-plated gold band adorned with big rose-cut diamonds and silver of foil, to enrich the light reflections on its stones.
10. Ellie Goulding
Ellie Goulding’s now ex-husband, Caspar Jopling, proposed to the British singer with a 100-year-old antique engagement ring in 2018. They were enjoying a night in together, after which Caspar proposed to her. It was unplanned, and she even found herself getting Caspar to redo it and get on one knee. It features a large, round-cut diamond ring on a platinum pavé band.
The Top Features of Vintage Engagement Rings
When discussing the world of vintage engagement rings, we had to speak with one of the top authorities in this industry, NYC’s Estate Diamond Jewelry. Their knowledge, insights, and guidance properly schooled us on these deluxe rings.
The first important aspect of these rings is the classic design. They use styles and influences from older eras, most prominently Victorian, from 1835-1900, and Art Nouveau from 1890-1915.
Before these later popular eras developed their own unique art and design, the formative years of the Georgian era (1714 to 1837) marked the first course. This era featured four English Kings named King George, from I to IV, who ruled for a total of 120 years.
Many basic jewel-crafting elements came out during the Georgian era, including natural motifs and patterns incorporated into handmade jewelry. They paired these designs with basic gem cuts and simple yet elegant craftsmanship.
The Victorian era, with Queen Victoria’s highly influential styles, used sentimental symbols such as hearts, hands, leaves, crosses, floral motifs, and even serpent-style jewelry. Many of the pieces were hand-made, with mass machine-made rings later making these rings more affordable for non-royalty.
The 1900s Jewelry Styles
The early Art Nouveau movement was the bridge of the older styles and the 1900s, featuring fluid, flowing lines, curves, and natural motifs. Many of the fantastical styles and designs of the period extended to the rings and jewelry of the era, along with gold, silver, blue, red, and other striking colors.
The modern eras marked the advance of the jewelry-making industry. The Edwardian period of 1901-1915 saw the return of more intricate designs as a reaction to modern machine-made advances in jewelry. This era featured the garland style, which used many of the Art Nouveau motifs combined with traditional, lavish designs of the Victorian era.
Art Deco in the 1920s to 1930s featured geometrical and modern styles as a response to the older and classic styles of Edwardian and Art Nouveau. It retained many of the fantastical elements of the previous eras, combined with the use of bolder and more sophisticated designs. Some of them borrowed from architectural and building designs. These carried on to the Mid-Century Retro from the 1940s-1950s era, when designers expanded their Art Deco influences with newer designs.
Vintage and Antique Jewelry Specifications
Vintage rings often used different degrees of gold in yellow, then later white and rose, as well as platinum, especially post-1900s. Intense and bright colored gemstones featured an array of top-class material. High-carat sapphires, rubies, emeralds, and different classes and hues of diamonds, sourced in mines from local and exotic locations, adorned the hands, heads, and bodies of the aristocrats, celebrities, musicians, and the wealthy class.
While diamonds remained the top gemstones, many vintage engagement rings featured beautiful, colored gemstones. Color palettes and designs expanded in the early 1900s, especially during the Art Deco and modern eras, when many collectors and buyers became more enamored of different colored gemstones for the bolder and cutting-edge designs of those eras. They coincided with the fashion revolutions of the 1930s to the 1950s and 60s.
Ring design and composition expanded in the early 1900s during the bold, beautiful, and colorful eras of Art Nouveau and Art Deco, including the use of nonconventional and fantastical designs. Nature motifs morphed and became more intricate, moving along with the advances of modern music and fashion influences, particularly the jazz and pop music movements.
These influences extended to the stone cuts. Most of these designs were basic, created to increase brilliance and beautiful light reflections inside and around the gemstones. Cuts popular during these eras included, and introduced styles such as the Old Mine Cut, Old European Cut, and Rose Cut.
The enduring power and legacy of these rings and jewelry involved sentimentality, the same way Queen Victoria’s heirloom pieces remained in the royal family, passed down from generation to generation. Plus, their value shot to astronomical levels as years passed by.
Vintage Engagement Ring Shopping Tips
Buyers and collectors love vintage rings. They are unique, custom-designed, and rare, and do not look like most of the rings out in the market today. There’s also no need to design, craft, and wait for months on end, as they are buyer-ready, apart from any minor modifications if needed.
When buying vintage rings, make sure to deal with established specialists who have been in the industry for years. Look for a good track record and a trusted brand name. Many of these companies have brick-and-mortar stores, while many are doing business online.
Look for certifications and other statutes of authority and expertise. These companies can provide Gemological Institute of America certifications and certificates on high-value diamonds, stones, and ring pieces.
That said, there are a few minor caveats when dealing with high-value vintage pieces. The most storied and rare ones demand high prices.
These rings also have some signs of wear, giving them character from years of use in these golden eras. Some collectors and buyers actually prefer these “time stamps” as real proof of authentic, vintage rings. Many of these rings are also custom-sized and may require size modifications
Before shopping, do some preliminary research based on the budget that you have. While many can have a somewhat flexible budget, make sure to stick to the ballpark figure you’ve set, unless you want to break your bank a bit.
