Laurence Graff receives OBE for services to jewellery
LONDON, June 20, 2013 – Laurence Graff, Chairman of Graff Diamonds, has been named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, receiving an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for services to jewellery.
Commenting on the announcement, Mr Graff said: “I am overjoyed to have received this acknowledgment for services to jewellery in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
“From humble beginnings and a lifetime working in the industry, I am extremely proud to receive such an honour.”
Laurence Graff
Mr Graff’s inclusion in the Honours List comes at a particularly poignant moment, with 2013 marking his 60th year in the industry after starting a career at the tender age of 15, working as a jeweller’s apprentice in London’s Hatton Garden.
Recalling the first time he held a diamond, Mr Graff said: “I can remember it vividly; it was breathtaking, the infinite depth of the stone was mesmerising.
“I was born to be amongst diamonds, they are my true passion and this passion translates into everything I do, from the sourcing of the most beautiful rough diamonds around the world, deciding on the final fate of a rough stone, to the design and setting of a finished piece.”
It is often said that Laurence Graff has handled more diamonds of notable rarity and beauty than any other jeweller, including: the Wittelsbach-Graff, the Idol’s Eye, the Imperial Blue, the Blue Ice, the Magnificence, the Graff Pink, the Delaire Sunrise, the Graff Constellation, the Flame and the Graff Sweethearts.
