Will & Kate
Grape Sapphire & Diamond Ring
Imagine you are newly engaged. You’ve just received a ring set with a big beautiful grape sapphire. Everyone will notice. They can’t help but notice. The world is watching. You are to become a princess and someday you will be Queen.
Following Will and Kate’s engagement in 2010 we studied the ring Prince William gave to Kate Middleton, taking detailed measurements from dozens of photographs. You have to assume the Royal Jeweler chosen by the House of Windsor knows a thing or two about jewelry design. Their jewelers understand balance and harmony while creating important and often large impressive pieces.
The most obvious point of note from our analysis of this royal ring are the fourteen diamonds which surround the center gem. Fourteen is the perfect number to frame, present and display, without taking away or upstaging the purity of color in the center. Jewelers to the royal family understand there is a special magic to the principle of fourteen, especially when the whole world is watching.
Here we have a deep saturated pink sapphire of 1.45 carats surrounded with fourteen brilliant white diamonds. Ring can be worn on the left hand as an engagement ring or on the right hand as a tasteful statement piece.
About the Gem
This is a Phillip Youngman-cut Sapphire. Phillip Youngman is an award winning, master gem cutter. His gems are truly distinctive for their incredible brilliance.
Phillip Youngman
Colored Gemstone Cutter
A native of central California, now living on the coast between Los Angeles and San Francisco, Phillip Youngman began exploring and collecting minerals as a small boy with his grandfather, who had a tungsten mine in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
A Vietnam veteran, Phillip was a professional musician following his service in the Air Force, and worked his way through college, studying business administration while, playing night clubs throughout Southern California.
After marrying his wife, Diana, Phillip moved up the coast to his present home, and after some thinking and talking with a friend who had opened a rock shop, began experimenting with stone cutting equipment, finding a personal passion which led him into his career.
Studying with the Gemological Institute of America, and learning first about diamonds, Phillip “assumed” that colored gems should be cut with the same care and precision as diamonds, and he started to cut and sell his unusually beautiful gems.
As his business has grown, he has traveled to Brazil, Sri Lanka and Kenya to buy rough gem crystals. He works alone, and has no employees, devoting much of his day to producing gems, and other business related tasks.
Phillip finds his career very comfortable, describing himself as somewhat reclusive, and enjoying his solitary time at the faceting machine. He acknowledges his natural gift for faceting, and even more unique, his ability to “see” into a piece of rough, enabling him to select only the choicest crystals, and contributing to the finished effect…a uniquely beautiful gem.
