Background

Harry Winston was born on March 1, 1896, in New York City, one of four children of Jacob Winston, owner of a small jewelry store, and Jeanette Harivmen. At the age of eight, one year after his mother's death, Winston and his sister accompanied his asthmatic father to Los Angeles. His two brothers remained in New York, where they worked for antiques dealers.

Education

Winston attended public school until the age of fifteen.

Career

He left high school in order to work full-time for his father in the jewelry business. Winston demonstrated his acumen for identifying gems at the age of twelve, when he spotted an emerald priced at 25 cents in a tray of junk jewelry in a pawnshop window. It turned out to be a two-carat stone, which he resold two days later for $800. His salesmanship was developed while working for his father, selling jewelry to oil prospectors in saloons.

In 1920, with almost $2, 000, he set up his first business, the Premier Diamond Company, at 535 Fifth Avenue, in New York City. Two years later, by buying shrewdly at auctions and wholesale markets, he accumulated $10, 000 in cash and jewelry worth $20, 000. Unfortunately, an employee absconded with all his assets. Winston persisted in his efforts to remain self-employed, however, securing a loan from a branch of the New Netherlands Bank. Taking advantage of changes in jewelry fashion in the 1920's, when many of the Victorian and Edwardian items such as stomachers, corsage ornaments, and tiaras were no longer desirable, Winston sent mailings to people listed in the Social Register and obtained the names of attorneys and judges who would know about estates to be probated, then wrote to ask if the jewelry was for sale. He removed the gems, recut the stones to achieve greater brilliance, and gave them a modern setting.

Winston's first major estate purchase was that of Rebecca Darlington Stoddard of New Haven, Connecticut, in 1925, obtained through the president of a branch of the New Netherlands Bank, who gave him a letter of introduction to her husband. Allowed to appraise the collection, Winston made an offer of $1. 2 million, knowing he would outbid everyone else, if he could have six months to sell it. Stoddard agreed; Winston found buyers, received $1. 25 million for the jewels, and earned a $125, 000 commission. In 1926, Winston acquired the estate jewels of Arabella Huntington for $1. 2 million, financed by the New Netherlands Bank, which gave him publicity when it was reported in the society columns of the major newspapers of the day. In December 1930 Winston's successful bid on a thirty-nine-carat emerald-cut diamond - the largest diamond sold at a public auction in the United States - initiated his reputation as a purchaser of large stones. Although Winston is identified mainly with diamonds, his purchase of the "Lucky" Baldwin estate in 1930 included a twenty-six-carat ruby that was ranked as one of the six top rubies in the world.

In 1932, Winston closed Premier Diamond Company and opened Harry Winston, Inc. , which manufactured its own line of jewelry. In 1935, when Winston bought the 726-carat Jonker diamond for $700, 000 from De Beers Company, which had earlier purchased it for $350, 000, the New York Times reported the purchase as establishing Winston's name worldwide. Winston had Lazare Kaplan cut the stone into eleven individual stones, together valued at $2 million. The Jonker 1 was sold for $1 million to King Farouk of Egypt. Ironically, King Farouk turned out to be, according to Winston, his only problem client. In 1951 he ordered the Catherine the Great emerald and the Star of the East diamond, neither of which he paid for on delivery. When he was deposed in 1952, he returned the emerald but claimed to have left the diamond in Egypt and to be unable to pay for it. This proved to be untrue, and it took Winston ten years of litigation to retrieve the diamond from a Swiss vault. Winston's love of big stones continued to bring him fame and success. His showmanship was vividly demonstrated by the exhibit called the Court of Jewels, which toured the country from 1949 to 1953. This display included the 46-carat Hope diamond, which carried a legend of bringing misfortune to its owners; the 95-carat Star of the East; the 94-carat pair of diamonds known as the Indore pear shapes, the 126-carat Jonker 1 emerald-cut diamond, the 31-carat McLean diamond, the 46-carat Mabel Boll diamond, and the 337-carat Catherine the Great sapphire. Winston was fascinated by the history of ownership as well as the intrinsic value of the gems, and used these histories to enhance interest in the stones. He was known to call some of his gems his babies, as he did the 62. 5-carat diamond that carried his name. Winston was one of a select group of jewelers (sightholders) who could buy uncut stones from De Beers Consolidated, which controlled 85 percent of the diamond market. His biggest purchase occurred in 1974, when he paid $24. 5 million for uncut diamonds. In 1978 he made the largest emerald purchase in history from the government of India. Winston wanted to have his own mine so that he would not have to pay commissions to De Beers. He tried to accomplish this in Angola, Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast, and Venezuela. He was not successful, and in the case of Sierra Leone, almost was excluded from De Beers. He negotiated a compromise and received a reduced commission rate.

Winston amassed a gem collection that ranked second only to that of the British Crown. Of some 300 major diamonds ranked by the Gemological Institute, Winston at one time had owned 60. He was the premier diamond merchant of Fifth Avenue, with salons in France and Germany and diamond-cutting factories in Israel, France, Germany, Portugal, Puerto Rico and Arizona, when he died on December 28, 1978, in New York City.

Achievements

• Harry Winston was an important diamond dealer and jeweler, who acquired many of the world's most famous gemstones. In addition, he was the donor of famous gems to museums; he donated the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958 after owning it for a decade and also traded the Portuguese Diamond to the Smithsonian in 1963.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Harry Winston

    (A look through the sparkling history of Harry Winston, “K...)

  • The Harry Winston Ultimate Timepiece

    (HARDCOVER BOOK ON HARRY WINSTON TIMEPIECE)

  • Rare Jewels of the World

    (Collectible. First edition, first printing. 2008. Publi...)

Views

Quotations: "People will stare. Make it worth their while. "

Personality

Harry Winston, short (five feet, four inches) and dapper, was called "a little Napoleon. "

Connections

On February 10, 1933, Harry Winston married Edna Fleishman, they had two children.

Father:

Jacob Winston

Mother:

Jeanette Winston (Harivmen)

Sister:

Dorothy Winston

Son:

Ronald Winston

Son:

Bruce Winston

Wife:

Edna V. Winston (Fleishman)

Brother:

Charles J. Winston

References

• Harry Winston
• Harry Winston: The Ultimate Jeweler
• Chasing Harry Winston: A Novel