Harry Winston: Extraordinary Diamonds

It is almost impossible for me to think of diamonds without thinking of Harry Winston. Harry Winston has owned many of the world’s most famous diamonds, including The Hope Diamond which was donated to the Smithsonian by Mr. Winston in 1958. He also had an amazing eye for fine jewelry design that featured the diamond.

Born in New York City in 1896, Harry Winston began working in the jewelry business at the age of 15. By the age of 24 he had opened the Premier Diamond Company, and in the early 1930s Harry Winston had begun to manufacturer jewelry under is own name. Mr. Winston was responsible for cutting of many famous, named diamonds including the Jonker, the Taylor-Burton and the Star of Sierra Leone. To many he is “The King of Diamonds”.

Harry Winston was one of the first designers to use fancy shape diamonds to create free flowing designs so popular in the 1950s and 60s, which I particularly love. As demonstrated through his love for large diamonds, his focus was on the stone. The diamonds in Winston jewelry seem to float in the air, using very fine layered (or jointed) mountings, as seen here in the classic “Cluster Earring”.

Mr. Winston died in 1978, but the Harry Winston retail tradition of exquisite diamonds and diamond jewelry has carried on.