Day: May 20, 2021

As tributes pour in for the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, his talent for jewellery design is being overlooked in contrast to his sporting and charitable achievements, his prodigious travel itinerary and his service to his wife, the Queen.

As a young sailor, newly engaged to the heir to the British throne, Prince Philip did not have much of a budget for an engagement ring. He appealed to his mother, Princess Alice of Greece and Denmark, and she gave him a diamond and aquamarine tiara which had been a wedding gift to her from her uncle and aunt, the Tsar and Tsarina of Russia (later assassinated in the Russian Revolution). Prince Philip had the tiara dismantled and commissioned jewellery firm Philip Antrobus to create a platinum and diamond ring, featuring a 3 carat central stone, with five smaller stones set on either side.

The remaining diamonds from the tiara were used to make a bracelet designed by Philip, and later known as the Edinburgh wedding bracelet. The geometric design of the wide diamond and platinum bracelet is reminiscent of Art Deco style, with three large square links connected by vertical sections, set with three large brilliant-cut diamonds.