Just Minutes after the world first saw the engagement ring Prince William gave to his fiancee Kate Middleton, the phones started ringing off the hook at a Manhattan jeweller.
The computer crashed. Then craftsmen at New York's Natural Sapphire Company got busy making the first of dozens of orders for copies of Ms Middleton's ring - an oval blue sapphire surrounded by diamonds that once belonged to William's late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.
Chief executive Michael Arnstein described it as a ''frenzy''.
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Mr Arnstein called his wife to say he didn't expect to make it home on Tuesday night.
Prince William and Ms Middleton announced their engagement on Tuesday, but the prince presented the priceless heirloom to Ms Middleton when he popped the question on a Kenyan holiday last month.
Middleton, 28, said: ''I just hope I look after it,'' after finally slipping the ring on her finger following a rocky, eight-year relationship.
Prince William admitted he was so worried about losing his mother's engagement ring that he hid it in his backpack for three weeks before he proposed to his girlfriend.
''I was carrying it around with me in my rucksack for about three weeks,'' he said.
''I literally would not let it go. Everywhere I went I was keeping hold of it because I knew if this thing disappeared I'd be in a lot of trouble.''
