In the 1960s, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were the “Royal Couple of Hollywood,” living a life of private jets, luxury yachts, and the most expensive jewelry on the planet. But one Christmas at their luxury chalet in Gstaad, Switzerland, the man with the golden voice decided that the only way to surprise a woman who had everything was to treat a multi-million dollar treasure like a cheap trinket. Burton once complained to friends that buying gifts for Liz was “the most terrible stress in the world” because her collection was already unparalleled. To break the cycle of predictable luxury, he decided to forego the velvet box and hide a fortune where no one would expect to find it. The “Pigeon Blood” Secret Early in their marriage, Burton vowed to find Taylor the “perfect ruby.” After a four-year search, he discovered an 8.24-carat Puertas Ruby at Van Cleef & Arpels—a gem of legendary “pigeon blood” red hue surrounded by a halo of diamonds. For the 1968 holiday, Burton secretly slipped the priceless ring into the very bottom of Elizabeth’s Christmas stocking. He intentionally buried it beneath common oranges, cheap chocolate bars, and small toys, creating a “minefield” of mundane items on top of a masterpiece. The “Horrifying” Christmas Morning On Christmas morning, the scene was one of domestic chaos. Burton later recounted that it was both “funny and horrifying” to watch Elizabeth—the woman who had played Cleopatra—rummaging through a knitted stocking like a frantic child. She tossed the fruit and candy onto the floor in her excitement, oblivious to the value of what lay beneath. When her fingers finally hit the small box at the bottom, she opened it to find the glowing red stone. “I screamed, which probably echoed over the mountains,” Taylor later wrote in her memoirs. Burton was struck by the surreal sight: “The queen of the world was sitting on the floor in her pajamas, wearing a fortune-sized gemstone on her finger,” surrounded by discarded orange peels. Data: From Stocking Stuffer to World Record The value of Burton’s “stocking stuffer” has grown staggering with time. When the ring went up for auction as part of The Collection of Elizabeth Taylor at Christie’s in 2011, it carried an estimate of $1 million to $1.5 million. However, the legendary provenance drove the price to a jaw-dropping $4,226,500. At the time, it set a world record for the highest price-per-carat for a ruby at $512,925. That single auction netted a total of $115.9 million, proving that Taylor’s “baubles,” as Burton called them, comprised one of the greatest private collections in history. The “Ping-Pong” Legacy This wasn’t the only time the couple used games to acquire jewelry at their Swiss retreat. Two years later, while playing ping-pong at the chalet, Burton challenged Elizabeth: if she could take 10 points off him, he would buy her a diamond. Elizabeth, a fierce competitor, won the points. Instead of a massive rock, they bought three small diamond rings, now famously known as the “Ping-Pong Diamonds.” These small rings were worn by Taylor just as proudly as the 33-carat Krupp Diamond. The story of the ruby in the stocking remains a favorite among historians, capturing the essence of the “Burton-Taylor” era: a mixture of extreme wealth, child-like joy, and a passion as fiery as the Burmese ruby itself.