Graff Pear-Shape Diamond Necklace (Sydell Miller)

Laurence Graff's house

Laurence Graff was born in Stepney, in London's East End, in 1938, the son of a Romanian mother and a Russian father. He left school at 14 to apprentice in a jewelry workshop, repaired rings and made small pieces in a partnership that failed, then 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.

In 1966 a ribbon bracelet he commissioned from the designer Robert Thomas won an international diamond jewelry competition. By 1974 he was selling to newly wealthy buyers in the Middle East, and the Sultan of Brunei became a lifelong client. In 1973 Graff became the first jeweler to receive the Queen's Award for Industry and Export.

The company is vertically integrated: it designs, manufactures and sells its own jewels, and its cutting and polishing is done in Johannesburg by a Graff division, the South African Diamond Corporation. Most Graff diamonds are laser-inscribed with Gemological Institute of America numbers that are invisible to the eye but allow the stone to be traced. Famous stones that have passed through the house include the Lesotho Promise, the Wittelsbach-Graff and the 302.37-carat Graff Lesedi La Rona.

The necklace

The necklace is composed of graduated pear-shaped diamonds and ends in a detachable central drop set with a pear-shaped diamond of 18.00 carats. It measures 15⅜ inches with a drop of 2⅜ inches, is signed Graff and numbered 3768, and came with its signed box. A published description gives the total weight as approximately 72.00 to 76.00 carats.

Because the drop comes off, the piece can be worn as a pure line of pear-shaped diamonds or with the large stone hanging at the center. The serial number 3768 and the Graff signature are the identifying marks; the published description does not give a date of manufacture or name the mine that produced the stones.

Thirty years of paperwork

The necklace came with a stack of gemological reports that trace its stones back three decades. The oldest, dated June 29, 1994, graded the 18.00-carat pear D color and Internally Flawless. A new report dated October 21, 2024, graded the same stone D color and VVS2 clarity, and a separate letter from the laboratory determined it to be Type IIa.

The change from Internally Flawless to VVS2 between the two reports is recorded in the documentation; the sources do not explain it. One survey of Graff's auction results describes Type IIa diamonds as the purest and rarest, prized for their transparency and lack of impurities.

Twenty-three more of the necklace's diamonds, weighing from 1.01 to 3.29 carats, carry reports dated between September 1, 1995, and May 4, 1998. They range from D to F color and from Internally Flawless to VS2 clarity. Together the dates suggest the stones were gathered and graded through the mid- to late 1990s, though no source gives the year the necklace itself was made.

Sydell Miller

Sydell Lubin was born in Cleveland on August 10, 1937. In 1958 she married Arnold Miller, whom she met as a customer at his Cleveland hair salon. In 1970 the couple founded Ardell, which introduced what was billed as the first ready-to-apply false eyelash, and in 1980 they founded Matrix Essentials, which became the largest maker of professional hair and beauty products in the country.

After her husband's death in the 1990s, she ran Matrix as president and CEO, more than doubled its sales and sold it to Bristol-Myers Squibb in 1994, the same year the necklace's center stone received its first grading report. She remained chairman until 1996. Her philanthropy centered on the Cleveland Clinic, where she and her children established the Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Pavilion in 2005. She died at her Cleveland home on February 25, 2024, at 86.

Her jewelry ran from large diamond pieces by Graff and Harry Winston to work by Hemmerle, Sabbadini and David Webb. The catalog for her collection noted that she loved complete sets and had worked with Graff for years to find the right stone for a 21.46-carat diamond ring. A photograph of Miller wearing this necklace was published with it.

December 2024

Miller's collection was sold in New York in late 2024 under the title A Legacy of Beauty: The Collection of Sydell Miller, with part of the proceeds going to the Cleveland Clinic, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the elephant care center at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo that bears her name. The necklace was offered on December 11, 2024, as lot 98, with an estimate of $1,000,000 to $1,500,000.

It sold for $1,800,000. Her 21.46-carat Graff ring, lot 96 in the same sale, also brought $1,800,000. A 2024 survey of Graff jewels sold at auction ranked the two together at the top of the year's results for the house.

The numbers

Carat weight

18.00-carat pear drop; total approximately 72.00 to 76.00 carats

Color and clarity

Center stone D, VVS2 (2024); D, Internally Flawless (1994). 23 others D to F, Internally Flawless to VS2

Diamond type

Type IIa (center stone)

Origin mine

Not disclosed in published sources

Cutter

Not disclosed for this piece; Graff cuts and polishes in Johannesburg

Serial number

Graff 3768

Timeline

1. Aug 10, 1937

   Sydell Lubin, later Sydell Miller, is born in Cleveland.

2. Jun 13, 1938

   Laurence Graff is born in Stepney, London.

3. 1958

   Sydell Lubin marries Arnold Miller.

4. 1960

   Laurence Graff founds Graff Diamonds.

5. 1973

   Graff becomes the first jeweler to receive the Queen's Award for Industry and Export.

6. 1980

   The Millers found Matrix Essentials.

7. 1994

   Sydell Miller sells Matrix Essentials to Bristol-Myers Squibb.

8. Jun 29, 1994

   The 18.00-carat pear diamond is graded D color, Internally Flawless.

9. Sep 1, 1995

   The earliest of 23 reports on the necklace's smaller diamonds is issued.

10. May 4, 1998

    The latest of the 23 smaller-diamond reports is issued.

11. Feb 25, 2024

    Sydell Miller dies at her home in Cleveland at 86.

12. Oct 21, 2024

    The 18.00-carat pear is regraded D color, VVS2 clarity, and confirmed Type IIa.

13. Dec 11, 2024

    Offered as lot 98 at auction in New York, the necklace sells for $1,800,000.

The world in 1994

• Apr 7, 1994

  The Rwandan genocide begins in Kigali.

• May 6, 1994

  The Channel Tunnel officially opens between England and France.

• May 10, 1994

  Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first Black president.

• Jul 5, 1994

  Jeff Bezos founds Amazon.

• Jul 17, 1994

  Brazil wins the FIFA World Cup, beating Italy in a penalty shootout.

• Mar 26, 1995

  The Schengen Agreement takes effect in several European countries.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Graff Pear-Shape Diamond Necklace (Sydell Miller) is number 29 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 (31 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The same 18.00-carat diamond was graded Internally Flawless in 1994 and VVS2 in 2024.
• Two of Sydell Miller's Graff jewels, this necklace and a 21.46-carat ring, each sold for $1.8 million in the same sale.
• Sydell and Arnold Miller's company Ardell introduced what was billed as the world's first ready-to-apply eyelash.
• Laurence Graff left school at 14 to become a jewelry apprentice.
• Most Graff diamonds are laser-inscribed with a tracking number too small to see with the naked eye.
• Part of the proceeds from Miller's collection went to an elephant care center at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.