This must be one of the most elegant rings we have ever had. Made somewhere in the twenties of the last century and sold in France as it carries the French hallmark for jewelry made outside of France. The center is set with a high domed cabochon natural sapphire. Such sapphires are called "pain du sucre" which is French for sugarloaf. (A sugarloaf was the traditional form, a tall gently-tapering cylinder with a conical top, in which refined sugar was exported from the Caribbean and eastern Brazil from the 17th to 19th centuries.)

engagement ring - An engagement ring is a finger ring of no generally accepted form that is given by a man to his fiancée as a token of marriage engagement, in the manner of the earlier betrothal ring, and indistinguishable in form or style. In recent years such rings have normally been set with a gemstone, usually a diamond (or any stone other than the ill-reputed opal), as a solitaire, of varying sizes, cuts, styles, and cost, but in the 19th century some were set with a pearl. In the same century the custom arose in England of separate engagement ring and wedding ring, and in very recent years such rings have sometimes been made en suite as a matching pair of similar style. In recent years, antique gemstone engagement rings are rapidly gaining in popularity.