When Elizabeth Taylor
said ‘I do’ for the first time, her engagement ring cost $10,000. By the time
she walked down the aisle for the third time, it cost $50,000. Her eighth and last
engagement ring wasn’t even mentioned. It was her $2 million dollar wedding
that had everyone talking.
With weddings being
such a lucrative business, and the engagement ring such a memorable tradition, great effort was made around 1926 to encourage
the groom likewise to start sporting a diamond or two on his right hand.
Despite all the marketing
employed, the campaign failed to interest the engaged groom. It was enough for
the bride to know that she belonged to him, without his having to remember that
he belonged to her.
Interestingly enough,
it was Napoleon who had the best idea when it came to engagement rings. Instead
of giving her a ring with just one diamond, he gave Josephine a ring with two
gems - a diamond to symbolise her, and a blue sapphire to symbolise him.
The setting was known
as ‘you and me’, in case Josephine ever forgot.
While in its own
time, Napoleon not being particularly rich, the ring had little monetary value,
when it was sold recently at an auction, it sold at $949,000.
Here's how it looks.
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