Écrin

Ideas

The single stone

Same idea, 13 houses.

The Tiffany Setting engagement ring: a round brilliant diamond held by six prongs on a platinum band engraved Tiffany & Co., on a white ground.
Image © Tiffany & Co.

The Tiffany Setting

Tiffany & Co. · 1886
Solitaire 1895 in platinum: a brilliant-cut diamond held by four claws on a plain band, on a pale ground.
Image © Cartier

Solitaire 1895

Cartier · 1895 From €930
Le Cube Diamant open ring in yellow gold: two small open cubes, each holding a diamond, facing each other, on a white ground.
Image © dinh van

Le Cube Diamant

dinh van · 1971 From €990
Joséphine Aigrette pendant, rose gold, pearls and diamonds
Image © Chaumet

Joséphine

Chaumet · 2010
Serti sur Vide ring in white gold: two open bands joined by a short bar, with a pear-cut diamond held above them, on a light grey ground.
Image © Repossi

Serti sur Vide

Repossi · 2014
Piaget Solstice high jewellery ring in gold: stacked bands carrying a large cushion-cut pink centre stone with smaller coloured gems and diamonds, on a pale portrait panel within a transparent square.
Image © Piaget

Piaget Solstice

Piaget · 2022
Albion ring in 18k yellow gold, 11 mm: a cushion-cut Hampton blue topaz in a frame of pavé diamonds on a split cable shank, on a white ground.
Image © David Yurman

Albion

David Yurman From €900
Cartier Destinée solitaire in platinum: a brilliant-cut diamond inside a halo of small diamonds on a pavé band, on a pale ground.
Image © Cartier

Cartier Destinée

Cartier
Étincelle de Cartier solitaire in platinum: a brilliant-cut diamond on a thin band paved with small diamonds, on a pale ground.
Image © Cartier

Etincelle de Cartier

Cartier From €3,300
Glam'Azone pavé ring in yellow gold: two parallel diamond-set bands joined at the centre by an oval diamond in a pavé halo, on a pale grey ground.
Image © Messika

Glam'Azone

Messika From €2,990
Mellerio Cut ring in white gold: an oval-shaped diamond in a halo of small diamonds on a pavé band, seen from above on a cream ground
Image © Mellerio

Mellerio Cut

Mellerio From €10,700

Also touching the single stone

Sunflower

Sunflower

Harry Winston · 1950
Elsa Peretti Diamonds by the Yard sprinkle necklaces in 18k yellow gold, bezel-set diamonds spaced along fine chains, hanging against a peach ground with evergreen sprigs.
Image © Tiffany & Co.

Elsa Peretti Diamonds by the Yard

Tiffany & Co. · 1974 From €1,250
Nudo Classic ring: a square faceted garnet in a white-gold collet on a thin rose-gold band, on a pale grey ground.
Image © Pomellato

Nudo

Pomellato · 2001 From €2,200
Pain de Sucre

Pain de Sucre

FRED · 2013 From €6,220
Fiorever

Fiorever

Bulgari · 2018

Lineage

  1. 1886 The Tiffany Setting Tiffany & Co.
  2. 1895 Solitaire 1895 Cartier
  3. 1950 Sunflower Harry Winston
  4. 1971 Le Cube Diamant dinh van
  5. 1974 Elsa Peretti Diamonds by the Yard Tiffany & Co.
  6. 2001 Nudo Pomellato
  7. 2010 Joséphine Chaumet
  8. 2013 Pain de Sucre FRED
  9. 2014 Serti sur Vide Repossi
  10. 2018 Fiorever Bulgari
  11. 2022 Piaget Solstice Piaget

Where it came from

Postage on the Hope Diamond came to $2.44. Harry Winston, who had bought the 45.52-carat stone in 1949, sent it to the Smithsonian by registered mail in November 1958, in a box wrapped in brown paper and insured for a million dollars. That is the idea at its purest: one gem, and everything else packaging.

The setting is where the jewellers have competed. A diamond ring marked a betrothal as early as 1477, when Archduke Maximilian gave one to Mary of Burgundy, yet in the 1880s most engagement stones still sat low in heavily ornamented gold. In 1886 Charles Lewis Tiffany lifted the diamond on six slender prongs so that light could reach it from every side, and the outline was copied so widely that the house issued public warnings against counterfeits. Cartier's archives record its first solitaire in 1895, and in 1947 De Beers gave the whole trade its slogan: a diamond is forever.

Later designers kept the single stone and changed what held it. Jean Dinh Van closed a round diamond inside an open gold cube in 1971, the circle set against the square. Newer rings play with how much setting to show: Cartier's Destinée circles its centre stone with small diamonds set to look as if they float, and Messika's Glam'Azone holds an oval between two crossing shafts of gold.

Side by side

Other ideas

All ideas