Harry Winston (March 1, 1896 – December 28, 1978) was an American jeweller. He donated the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958 after owning it for a decade, and traded the Portuguese Diamond to the Smithsonian in 1963.
History
Harry Winston's father Jacob started a small jewelry business after he and Harry's mother immigrated to the United States from Ukraine. He worked in his father's shop growing up, and legend has it that when he was just 12 years old, he recognized a two-carat emerald in a pawn shop, bought it for 25 cents, and sold it two days later for $800.
Winston's jewelry empire began with his acquisition of Arabella Huntington's famous jewelry collection. The wife of railroad magnate Henry Huntington, Arabella amassed one of the world's most prestigious collections of jewelry, largely from Parisian jewelers such as Cartier.
When Winston purchased the collection after her death, the designs of the collection were quite old fashioned. Winston redesigned the jewelry into more contemporary styles and showcased his unique skill at jewelry crafting. According to the Huntington museum, "He frequently boasted that Arabella's famous necklace of pearls now adorned the necks of at least two dozen women around the world."
Winston has said: "People will stare. Make it worth their while."
Winston was among the most famous jewelers in the world, well-known to the general public. In the 1953 musical film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes , the song "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" includes the spoken interjection "Talk to me, Harry Winston, tell me all about it!" The Lauren Weisberger comic novel Chasing Harry Winston was published in May 2008.
Today, the Harry Winston Diamond Corporation operates seven salons in the U.S., in New York, Beverly Hills, Las Vegas, Dallas, Honolulu, Bal Harbour, and Chicago, and ten salons in other countries. Harry's son Ronald Winston plays a managerial part in the company.
Notoriety
On July 14, 2008, art curator Jack Armstrong filed a lawsuit against Harry Winston, Inc. and its Vice President Goli Parstabar in a Los Angeles Superior Court alleging that Winston was holding the Black Star Sapphire of Queensland hostage. Armstrong claims that he is the owner of the famed gem which is considered the largest and most valuable of its kind at 733 carats (147 g). Armstrong had the valuable jewel shipped to Winston for safekeeping. When he arrived to retrieve it, Winston refused to release it. Armstrong was quoted in one instance as saying, "I was born in Kansas. If something like this happened in Wichita, someone would have gone to jail!" Armstrong's attorney is Hollywood lawyer, Devin Weisberg.
On 4 December 2008 , the Harry Winston boutique at 29 Avenue Montaigne (corner of Rue Clément Marot) in Paris was robbed of more than Euro €80 million (about USD$105 million) worth of "diamond rings, necklaces and luxury watches" by a "gang of three or four" armed men just before closing. At least two of the thieves were men wearing "wigs and women's clothes." The store had also been robbed in October 2007, when a similar heist at opening time on a Saturday netted the robbers about €20 million
Important diamonds Winston owned
- The Hope (45.52 carats (9.10 g), Fancy Dark Grayish-Blue, antique cushion brilliant)
- Porter Rhodes (53 carats (11 g), colorless, Asscher cut)
- The Portuguese (127.01 carats (25.40 g), faint yellow with strong blue fluorescence, antique emerald cut)
- The Crown of Charlemagne (37.05 carats (7.41 g), sky blue, Old European cut brilliant)
- The Briolette of India (90.38 carats (18.08 g), colorless, briolette cut)
- The Qamar-I-Sultana (44 carats (8.8 g), colorless, marquise cut)
- The Arcots (33.70 and 23.65 carats (4.73 g), recut by Winston to 31.01 and 18.85 carats (3.77 g), respectively. Stones were originally thought to be a match but when Winston bought them, removed them from their setting and discovered they weren't, he decided to recut them slightly to improve their clarity and brilliance. Both were either colorless or near-colorless, and antique pear-shaped brilliants.)
- The Anastasia (Three emerald cuts weighing 42.95, 30.90 and 22.88 carats (4.58 g), all D color and Flawless clarity. Cut from a rough crystal weighing 307.30 carats (61.46 g) Winston had purchased in 1972, largest gem named after Anastasia Nikolaevna, daughter of Czar Nicholas II.
- The Ashoka (Originally 42.47 carats (8.49 g), colorless, modified elongated cushion brilliant. Purchased by Winston from an Indian dealer in 1947; subsequently sold and repurchased several times by the firm. Stone was recut slightly in 1977 from its original weight of 42.47 carats (8.49 g) before it was sold again as a ring.)
- The Cornflower Blue (31.93 carats (6.39 g) pear brilliant; 12.39 carats (2.48 g) round brilliant, blue, cut from 158 carats (32 g) South African rough which Winston purchased in 1958. The larger stone was sold in 1969 as the pendant for a diamond necklace. Winston repurchased it two years later, then sold it to a Middle Eastern client. The round brilliant was set as a ring and sold in 1969. In 1987 the pear brilliant was auctioned in Geneva, Switzerland.
- Countess Széchényi (62.05 carats (12.41 g), D color, pear-shaped brilliant. Purchased by Winston in 1959 from namesake and recut to a flawless 59.38 carats (11.88 g). Sold to an American industrialist in 1966.)
- The Deepdene (104.52 carats (20.90 g), yellow, antique cushion brilliant. Purchased by Winston in 1954 from Cary W. Bok, then sold the following year to Mrs. Eleanor Loder of Canada. Resurfaced in 1971 and put up for auction at Christie's in Geneva. This stone is also the largest known diamond to receive irradiation treatment, which improved its color.
- The Deal Sweetener (45.31 carats (9.06 g) plus four smaller stones, D color and Flawless, emerald cut. In 1974 Winston bought a large parcel of diamonds worth $24,500,000—at that time the largest individual sale of diamonds in history. Harry Oppenheimer, head of De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd., arranged the transaction. When Winston asked Oppenheimer, "How about a little something to sweeten the deal?" Harry Oppenheimer pulled a 181 carats (36 g) rough diamond out of his pocket and rolled it across the table. Winston picked up the stone, smiled, and said simply, "Thanks." It was cut into five gems, the largest being named the Deal Sweetener. Other gems cut from the crystal: An emerald cut of 24.67 carats (4.93 g), plus three pear shapes of 10.80, 4.19 and 1.45 carats (290 mg), respectively. All were sold that same year.)
- The Blue Heart (30.82 carats (6.16 g), blue, heart-shaped brilliant. Cut by the firm of Atanik Eknayan in Neuilly, France sometime before Cartier sold it to the Unzue family of Argentina in 1910. It reappeared in Paris in 1953 where it was purchased by an important European titled family, then purchased by Harry Winston in 1959. Winston mounted it in a ring and sold it to Marjorie Merriweather Post, who lated donated it to the Smithsonian Institution.)
- Étoile du Désert (50.67 carats (10.13 g), D-color, pear-shaped brilliant. Acquired by Winston in 1977 and mounted in a diamond necklace. Sold the same year to a Saudi Arabian prince. The necklace contained over 250 carats (50 g) of diamonds, among them a 16 carats (3.2 g) D-color Flawless clarity marquise cut.)
- The Idol's Eye (70.20 carats (14.04 g), Light Blue, semi-triangular modified antique brilliant. Allegedly first seen in 1607 when the East India Company seized the stone from its owner, a Persian prince named Ragab, as payment for debts. Resurfaced in 1906 in the possession of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. The stone, along with the Hope Diamond and Star of the East, were stolen from the sultan by his messenger and sold to French pawn shops. The stones were intended to provide a comfortable retirement for the sultan. Appeared at the June 1909 auction held in Paris by gem dealer/collector Selim Habib, where it was purchased by a Spanish nobleman. It then came into the possession of a London bank and eventually was bought by a Dutch diamond dealer, from whom Winston purchased the stone in November 1946. Winston sold the diamond in 1947 to Mrs. May Bonfils Stanton, daughter of the publisher and co-founder of the Denver Post . It was mounted as the center stone in a diamond necklace with eighty-six other diamonds totalling 35 carats (7.0 g). In 1963, after Mrs. Stanton's death, the gem was sold at auction in New York City. Legendary jeweler Laurence Graff of London also owned the stone.)
- The Indore Pears (46.95 and 46.70 carats (9.34 g) but later recut to 44.62 and 44.18 carats (8.84 g) respectively, colorless, both pear-shaped antique brilliants. Originally owned by Maharaja Tukoji Rao III Holkar who was forced to abdicate due to a scandal in 1926. Despite his abdication he remained very wealthy and retained the diamonds. He married American Nancy Anne Miller in 1928 amid much international publicity. Miller converted to Hinduism and after marrying was known as Maharani Shamista Devi Holkar. Winston purchased the two diamonds in 1946 from the former maharaja and
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