FLOAT 100 · Jewelry · No. 86
Graff Pave Butterfly Diamond Pendant
The London house built on some of the world's most famous diamonds first hung a butterfly from a chain in 1975, and fifty years later its small pavé version, wings frozen mid-flight in half a carat of diamonds, is the most approachable way into the Graff name.
- Year
- current
- Maker
- Graff
- By price in jewelry
- 71 of 100
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- Graff, London (founded 1960 by Laurence Graff)
- Model
- Pavé Butterfly Diamond Small Pendant
- Reference
- RGP550
- Metal
- White gold, on a fine white gold chain
- Stones
- White diamonds, approximately 0.55 carats total
- Chain length
- 46 cm, adjustable
- Motif introduced
- 1975, as a diamond Butterfly pendant
- Retail
- $8,350 excluding taxes at the maker in October 2026
A butterfly in 1975
The Graff Butterfly first appeared in 1975 as a pared-back diamond pendant showing a butterfly in mid-flight. One account calls it simple, with clean lines and lightness, and argues that its novelty was a sense of motion at a time when nature jewelry often looked static. Graff says every Butterfly is made so that its wings are held aloft, a fleeting moment captured in diamonds.
Brooches, earrings and necklaces followed from the 1970s through the 1990s, with wings lifted off the surface and more sculptural bodies, and a 1981 campaign showed a Butterfly high jewelry necklace and brooch. In the 2000s the designs became cleaner and more diamond-focused, some with no colored stones at all.
Over time the motif split into named lines, including Silhouette and Pavé, in which the wings are carpeted with small diamonds. The small pendant in this entry belongs to the Pavé family. Graff calls the butterfly a signature motif that has inspired an entire universe of jewels.
Laurence Graff's house
Laurence Graff was born in Stepney, in London's East End, on June 13, 1938, to a Romanian mother and a Russian father. He left school at 14 to apprentice in a jewelry workshop, repaired rings in a small shop, and when that failed, sold his own designs to jewelers around England. He founded Graff Diamonds in 1960 and by 1962 had two shops, the first in Hatton Garden.
The company grew into a vertically integrated business that designs, makes and sells its own jewelry. In 1973 it became the first jeweler to receive the Queen's Award for Industry and Export. Graff became known for buying and recutting famous stones: the Windsor Yellows from the Duchess of Windsor's jewels in 1987, the Wittelsbach diamond for £16.4 million in 2008, and the Lesedi La Rona rough, cut in 2019 into a 302.37-carat emerald cut.
Graff's first store outside the United Kingdom opened in Monaco's Hôtel de Paris in 2000; it now has more than 50. Laurence Graff's son Francois is chief executive, and Graff was appointed OBE in 2013 for services to the jewelry industry.
Fifty years of butterflies
Graff marked the Butterfly's 50th anniversary with a high jewelry campaign launched on March 20, 2025, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere, photographed by Felix Cooper in London. Its centerpiece was a necklace with 57.13 carats of snow-set pavé emeralds around a 5.04-carat emerald-cut diamond, with butterflies radiating outward.
'In many ways, the evolution of the Graff Butterfly embodies the ethos of Graff,' said chief executive Francois Graff. Design director Anne-Eva Geffroy called the butterfly 'a silhouette that continues to excite our imaginations and spark our creativity.'
The small pavé pendant sits at the other end of that range. In October 2026 Graff listed reference RGP550 at $8,350 before taxes in the U.S., shown as out of stock online. Earlier 2010s designs had already pushed toward clusters of butterflies and snow-set pavé, in which stones of varying sizes are set with minimal visible metal.
How to identify it
Reference RGP550 is a white gold butterfly fully paved with white diamonds totaling approximately 0.55 carats, suspended from a fine white gold chain 46 cm long and adjustable. Graff notes that each creation is unique, so size, carat weight and stone quality can vary slightly from piece to piece.
The word small in the name matters, and Graff sells other Butterfly pendants, such as the Double Butterfly Silhouette pendant (RGP745), under different references and prices. Check the reference before comparing.
New pieces come in a case and box with a signature bag and a certificate of authenticity. Graff also offers engraving on the piece; customized pieces cannot be returned.
The numbers
- Carat weight
- Approximately 0.55 ct total, white diamonds
- Metal
- White gold
- Chain
- Fine white gold, 46 cm, adjustable
- Setting
- Pavé
- Maker
- Graff, London
- Production
- Current catalog piece; Butterfly motif since 1975
Timeline
Laurence Graff is born in Stepney, London.
Laurence Graff founds Graff Diamonds in London.
Graff has two shops, the first in Hatton Garden.
Graff becomes the first jeweler to receive the Queen's Award for Industry and Export.
The first Graff Butterfly appears as a diamond pendant.
A Graff campaign features a Butterfly high jewelry necklace and brooch.
Laurence Graff buys the Windsor Yellows in Geneva.
Graff opens its first store outside the U.K., in Monaco.
Graff buys the Wittelsbach diamond for £16.4 million.
Laurence Graff is appointed OBE.
Graff launches a 50th-anniversary Butterfly high jewelry campaign.
The Pavé Butterfly Diamond Small Pendant, ref. RGP550, lists at $8,350 before taxes at the maker in the U.S.
The world in 1975
Margaret Thatcher becomes leader of Britain's Conservative Party, the first woman to lead any British political party.
Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft in Albuquerque.
A militia attack on a bus in Lebanon triggers the Lebanese Civil War.
Saigon falls and the Vietnam War ends.
The Suez Canal reopens for the first time since the Six-Day War.
American and Soviet spacecraft dock in orbit in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.
The Helsinki Accords are signed.
Juan Carlos is declared King of Spain after Franco's death.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | $8,350 | Asking price, not a saleMaker's U.S. price, excluding taxes, for the Pavé Butterfly Diamond Small Pendant in white gold, ref. RGP550, about 0.55 ct. |
This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.
By reference price, Graff Pave Butterfly Diamond Pendant is number 71 of 100 in the jewelry entries of the FLOAT 100. 44 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (86 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- The Graff Butterfly turned 50 in 2025.
- Laurence Graff left school at 14 to become a jewelry apprentice.
- Graff was the first jeweler ever to win the Queen's Award for Industry and Export, in 1973.
- Graff launched its anniversary Butterfly campaign on the first day of spring.
- Graff says each of its pieces is unique, so carat weights can vary slightly even within one reference.
- Butterfly wings in Graff's high jewelry are often built from marquise and pear-shaped diamonds, shapes that already look like wings.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026