Graff Emerald Earrings

The British jeweler Sir Laurence Graff (b. 1938) became utterly mesmerized by diamonds when he undertook his first apprenticeship at age 15 in London’s Hatton Garden jewelry district. It wasn't long before he established his now-celebrated eponymous brand, which produces engagement rings, necklaces, rings, earrings, stand-alone jewels, watches and more — all entirely in-house.

Graff had enrolled in classes at Central School of Arts and Crafts, and while he initially showed promise and was highly regarded, the shop owner, Mr. Schindler — who had his apprentice scrubbing floors and toilets — soon changed his tune, deeming him subpar. Undeterred, Graff learned to repair rings and designed small jewels at a humble workbench in his bedroom. He opened a 24-hour ring-repair service with a business partner and, in 1960, founded his luxury house. Two retail locations followed in London in 1962. Graff would go on to become one of the finest diamantaires in the world and was appointed an OBE in 2013 by Queen Elizabeth for his services to the jewelry industry.

Graff is known for handling some of the most famous diamonds in the world, including the Windsor Yellows, the Paragon, the Lesotho Promise and the Wittelsbach-Graff. He also purchased the 302.37-carat Graff Lesedi La Rona, which, at the time, was the largest diamond ever graded by the Gemological Institute of America. The GIA certified the diamond — then the second-largest gem-quality rough diamond on record — as being of highest color and highest clarity. Lucara Diamond Corporation workers discovered the 1,109-carat rough diamond in 2015 at the Karowe mine in Botswana, and after Graff purchased the diamond in 2017, his gemologists and craftsmen spent more than 18 months polishing its final facets.

While many jewels, such as the Graff Lesedi La Rona, remain in Graff’s collection, he does sell extremely high-quality stand-alone jewels. Gems in his showrooms can reportedly fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars on average. Although these stones are perhaps slightly out of the budget of a typical Graff jewelry client, the house does work with more reasonably priced, but no less exceptional gems for its collections.

Naturally, diamonds feature prominently in Graff jewelry, which is known for being more avant-garde than traditional, although Graff does create classic engagement rings, too. The jeweler’s ready-to-wear collections integrate naturalistic motifs like butterflies, bows and sunbursts, as well as striking silhouettes like the crisscrossed Kiss, the clustered Threads and the swirling Inspired by Twombly line, which pays homage to the work of American painter and sculptor Cy Twombly. And while diamonds are the main focus for Graff, his jewelry occasionally features other precious and semiprecious stones.

Browse Graff watches, rings, earrings and other accessories on 1stDibs.

In the United States, ear piercing didn’t really become popular until the 1950s and ‘60s, but our desire for a dazzling pair of vintage earrings has deeper roots than that. In fact, wearing earrings actually goes back thousands of years, and you can find many tangible connections between now and then in how we continue to talk about these treasured accessories.

Women wore ornamental earrings — studs and hoops at the very least — in Ancient Egypt, which is home to mines that are among the earliest sources of emeralds in the world. Emerald earrings are highly prized today, and their quality lies in their rich, saturated color. The highest-quality emeralds are green or bluish-green. Earrings worn by the affluent in early Roman civilizations were set with precious stones such as diamonds and pearls, and a clean-looking pop of pearl on the front of the lobe is as timeless as ever. Hoop earrings are imbued with symbolism and cultural significance for many, and on view in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Ancient Near Eastern Art Gallery is a pair of simple gold hoops from Mesopotamia dating to between 2600 and 2500 B.C.

Today, ear piercing is very popular all over the world, and, as a result, it is difficult to overstate how much everyone pines for a good pair of earrings — modernist drop earrings, glamorous Victorian hoops, geometrically complex chandelier earrings, you name it. Sure, jewelry trends and the fashion darlings of social media come and go, but earrings have a staying power that seems impenetrable: The still-strong love affair between British royals and Cartier earrings is more than a century old, glossy 1970s hoops from legacy houses such as Bulgari and Van Cleef & Arpels remain the statement makers they’ve always been and although people have been stacking earrings for many moons, the allure of an expertly mismatched stack of charms and studs still feels fresh and new.

While there is no shortage of modern earring designs to choose from, the classics, like coral earrings, Art Deco–style earrings and diamond drop earrings are still heavy hitters. On 1stDibs, find a wide range of antique, new and vintage earrings today.