She was the woman who would change royal history forever. Wallis Simpson’s romance with King Edward VIII led to him deciding between love and duty. In the end, it was a choice of love. The King Emperor abdicated the throne as he was unable to marry the American divorcée in the Church of England at the time. The throne passed to his brother, Albert, who became King George VI. And Edward headed into exile where, months later, he married Wallis. And he sealed their engagement with one of the most unusual of rings.

On 27 October 1936, just months before his abdication, the man who would become the Duke of Windsor, proposed to Wallis with an emerald engagement ring. The ring was sourced in Baghdad by Jacques Cartier earlier in the decade. The jewel itself was half the size of a bird’s egg and would be cut into two and sold separately. The other half went to an American millionaire. Edward ended up choosing the half estimated to be 19.77 carats as the centerpiece for his engagement ring to Wallis. Traditionally, emeralds are not used for engagement rings. This is because the stone is softer than diamonds and can be scratched easily.

As we know, this relationship ended up being nothing but traditional. The ring likely had a deeper meaning for Wallis as Edward engraved the phrase: “We are ours now 27×36” into the jewel as well as the couple’s initials, “We.” The number is in reference to the date Edward proposed and the stone was seen as a symbol of hope and protection for the marriage. A twist of events started the very next day as the couple’s engagement came just as Wallis’s divorce proceedings from her previous husband began. The divorce was finalised on 3 May 1937. She would marry Edward exactly a month later at the Chateau de Cande in France.

In 1958, the Duchess of Windsor took her ring back to Cartier to be redesigned with a more modern style consisting of a yellow gold set and several new diamonds. After her death in 1986, the ring was sold in its 1950s gold and diamond setting for £1.5million at Sotheby’s.