diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index dfc849654..65f015612 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 # vctrs (development version)
 
+* Fixed an issue where `vec_set_*()` used with data frames could accidentally
+  return an object with the type of the proxy rather than the type of the
+  original inputs (#1837).
+
 * Fixed a rare `vec_locate_matches()` bug that could occur when using a max/min
   `filter` (tidyverse/dplyr#6835).
 
diff --git a/src/proxy.c b/src/proxy.c
index d7bd89865..b17ea8365 100644
--- a/src/proxy.c
+++ b/src/proxy.c
@@ -215,7 +215,10 @@ r_obj* vec_proxy_order_invoke(r_obj* x, r_obj* method) {
 
 static inline
 r_obj* df_proxy(r_obj* x, enum vctrs_proxy_kind kind) {
-  x = KEEP(r_clone_referenced(x));
+  // Always clone to avoid modifying the original object, even if it is one
+  // we freshly created in C, because we often work with both the proxy and the
+  // original object within the same function (#1837)
+  x = KEEP(r_clone(x));
 
   switch (kind) {
   case VCTRS_PROXY_KIND_equal: DF_PROXY(vec_proxy_equal); break;
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-set.R b/tests/testthat/test-set.R
index 5ad9cc209..7eb47287e 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-set.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-set.R
@@ -341,6 +341,20 @@ test_that("works with rcrds", {
 
 # common ------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+test_that("works with package version columns of data frames (#1837)", {
+  package_frame <- function(x) {
+    data_frame(version = package_version(x))
+  }
+
+  x <- package_frame(c("4.0", "2.0"))
+  y <- package_frame(c("1.0", "3.0" ,"4.0"))
+
+  expect_identical(vec_set_intersect(x, y), package_frame("4.0"))
+  expect_identical(vec_set_difference(x, y), package_frame("2.0"))
+  expect_identical(vec_set_union(x, y), package_frame(c("4.0", "2.0", "1.0", "3.0")))
+  expect_identical(vec_set_symmetric_difference(x, y), package_frame(c("2.0", "1.0", "3.0")))
+})
+
 test_that("errors nicely if common type can't be taken", {
   expect_snapshot(error = TRUE, {
     vec_set_intersect(1, "x")