2.65 CT MALAYA GARNET ENGAGEMENT RING — EMPRESS SETTING, PLATINUM WITH DIAMOND PAVÉ

An empire of one.

Imperatrix is Latin for Empress — the feminine form of Emperor, the one who ruled in her own name. This ring is built for that kind of woman: a 2.65-carat malaya garnet at the center, round brilliant, its color somewhere between raspberry and sunrise, held in four platinum prongs with diamond pavé running the shank on both sides. It doesn't apologize for taking up space. It doesn't need to.

A word on malaya garnet

Malaya is Swahili for outcast. In the 1960s, miners working the Umba Valley in Tanzania — paid to find rhodolite garnet — kept turning up pinkish crystals that didn't match what anyone had seen before. They threw them out. Called them out of the family. The gem dealers refused them. It took another decade for the world to catch up and realize the rejected stones were their own variety entirely: a rare pyrope-spessartite hybrid that exists almost nowhere else on earth, in colors garnet wasn't supposed to make.

Malaya garnets are small by nature — anything over three carats is considered significant, and the original Umba deposit was nearly depleted before the world understood what it had. At 2.65 carats, this one sits near the top of the size range most people will ever encounter. And among malayas, this color is the one collectors chase. The variety shows up in peach, cinnamon, and burnt orange more often than not; the open pink-red shade is the one gem dealers price at the top of the range. This stone is that shade — a saturated rose-pink with red at the core, the kind of color that reads jewel-toned rather than earth-toned, closer in spirit to a fine pink spinel than to the garnet most people have in their head.

It is the right stone for this setting. Empress is for the woman who ruled in her own name, and malaya is the stone that was thrown out for not fitting — and became valuable precisely because of it.

Every stone is natural, ethically sourced, and conflict-free. The platinum is solid and recycled where possible. The setting is built using old world techniques by hand — the same methods that have defined fine jewelry for centuries.

Made in New York. One piece, one wearer, one story.

Ready to ship This exact ring is finished and waiting — size 6.5, as pictured. It ships as shown; malaya garnets in this size and color are increasingly difficult to source, and this is the one.

The details

• Metal: solid platinum
• Center stone: 2.65 ct malaya garnet, round brilliant
• Accent stones: diamond pavé along the shank, eighteen stones at 1.3mm
• Band width: 2mm
• Size: 6.5 (this piece)
• Handmade in New York

Make it yours Every Vena Amoris piece begins as a conversation. If you'd like this design in a different size, metal, or stone — or something entirely your own — email us. There are no traditions when it comes to love.