The Golden Empress

FANCY INTENSE YELLOW, 132.55 CTS

The yellow diamond has become a Graff signature, as a procession of entrancing golden gemstones has passed through our hands over the decades. Several of these have marked the pages of diamond history – including the 118.08 carat Delaire Sunrise and the 100.09 carat Graff Vivid Yellow – but none have matched the magnitude of the Golden Empress.

A Golden Opportunity

Coloured diamonds are a particular rarity – as few as one in 10,000 stones – and are therefore highly prized. Laurence Graff knew instinctively that the 299 carat opaque rough uncovered at Lesotho’s Letšeng Mine had the potential to produce a number of very special jewels.

‘The opportunity to shape a diamond of such rare and vivid colour as this is a honour beyond words.’

— LAURENCE GRAFF

The Golden Empress famous diamond by Graff on a diamond cutting wheel

A Fine Balance

Colour introduces a new dimension of risk into the of process of faceting and refining a stone – each facet has to be precisely articulated to open the diamond up to light and ignite the fire inside, but a single misjudgement and the colour is lost.

Colour Unmatched

A diamond’s colour is the result of the play of trace elements deep within the crystal structure. Although a rainbow of colours, with near-infinite nuances of shade within them, have passed beneath our loupes, nothing has ever matched the vibrant honeyed tones of the Golden Empress.

The Golden Empress and satellite stones by Graff

A Royal Family

The Golden Empress was accompanied by an entourage of satellite stones: two brilliant rounds and six pear shape diamonds, the largest weighing 21.34 carats – an Empress and an imperial family, bathed in golden light.

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