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The engagement ring of former Hollywood film star Debra Kerr is soon to go under the hammer at auction and is expected to fetch in excess of 25,000 pounds. Kerr who starred in many big Hollywood blockbusters, including ‘The King and I’ with Yul Brynner and ‘From Here To Eternity’ with Burt Lancaster and Frank Sinatra, joins a long list of stars whose possessions have attracted lots of interest from memorabilia collectors.

Hollywood and the movie business are synonymous with glamour and beauty. Light projected onto a screen has always had a compelling and hypnotic attraction to audiences. Through the movies we get to dream of a better world and better life; for a brief time we are transported to the make believe world of movie stars like Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe and Scarlett Johansen. It’s no wonder that people want to own a piece of the world they see projected larger than life size and it’s no wonder why an item like Kerr’s engagement ring can garner such interest.

Autographs, posters, clothing and props from famous, and also not so famous, films are frequently ending up at auctions or for sale on websites. The interest in such items has really taken off in recent years and the prices have gone through the roof, particularly for jewellery.

There are even websites that sell jewellery, and in particular engagement rings, based on the designs worn by film stars. Kate Hudson, Heidi Klum and Jessica Alba imitations are all available. But it’s the real thing that the serious collector is after and there is no shortage of jewellery appearing on the market. There are plenty of famous names to look out for but there are some that collectors would give anything to own but are unlikely to appear on the market.

In 1953 John F Kennedy had an engagement ring secretly designed for his soon to be wife Jacqueline Bouvier. The ring, an incredibly modern design for the time, was made by Van Cleef & Arpels and consisted of an emerald centre stone surrounded by 2.88 carats of diamonds in a stunning setting. The ring had such an impact on the public that emeralds became the stone of choice in 1950’s America for engagement rings.

The engagement ring that Joe DiMaggio gave Marilyn Monroe was impressive enough at 3 carats but it was the wedding band he gave her in 1954 that caught the imagination. The platinum ring was decorated with 35 baguette diamonds and once sold at auction for $772,500. Undoubtedly it would fetch far more if it ever came up again.

Perhaps the most famous film star, when it comes to engagement rings, is Elizabeth Taylor by virtue of the fact that she was married an incredible eight times, twice to the same person, Richard Burton. It was Burton who gave her the engagement ring she sold at an AIDS auction recently, a 33 carat Krupp diamond ring. It was also Burton who also once bought her a 69.42 carat pear shaped diamond as a present, one of the largest in the world. The stone was cut from a rough diamond weighing over 240 carats and became so infamous for its association with the couple that it was known as the Taylor-Burton diamond.

Demi Moore and Scarlett Johansen have recently been seen wearing impressive engagement rings with large diamonds on them but it’s hard to imagine that in years to come they’ll attract as much attention as previous generations of stars and end up in some collectors private collection, although having said that I’m sure Debra Kerr never gave much thought to the same idea when she married Squadron Leader Tony Bartley in 1945!

Resources: Dominic Donaldson is an expert in the jewellery industry. Find out more about engagement rings and jewellery.