Ernst had bought an antique ring online. He wanted an expert in diamonds and jewellery to look at it. We met in a coffee place and I saw a nice old, rose-cut diamond, set in a simple new ring.

This marriage (French) of old and new was not executed with much love, it was lacking something. As an engagement ring, that is worn daily and should be eye-catchingly beautiful, it was not suitable. So, we were going to look for a better version of this idea, for the same budget.

A search was placed in Antwerp for an oval antique diamond – a so-called “bolshevik’. In the meantime, we played ping-pong about the design of the ring. Ernst showed me all sorts of shapes that his future wife likes: a cupboard, a table, the rings she already owned. Art Nouveau was her favourite design style, but not anything with too much frills

Ernst postponed the Big Question for it, he wanted the perfect ring first. The oval bolshevik cut diamond was found, an artistic goldsmith made a beautiful sketch, of a ring with character: elegant but not frumpy, well made and solid but not heavy, classical but not boring… in other words: the perfect ring.