He was drawn to the way the leaves shaped the wreath and thought that he could adapt this to jewelry design, whereby the wearer only saw the gemstones and not the supporting metal beneath. This concept was envisioned by Harry Winston while looking at a holly wreath hanging from his front door at Christmas in 1944. Perhaps the most important design has been the much admired and greatly imitated 'Winston' look. With the finest rough diamonds available, as well as numerous historical gems, he imbued his pieces with exceptional style. He is acknowledged as a visionary in the field for his pursuit of excellence combined with his passion, discretion, intuition and knowledge. On 1stDibs, find a stunning collection of Harry Winston jewelry that includes bracelets, wedding rings, engagement rings and other accessories.Aptly regarded as the "King of Diamonds," Harry Winston has been known for handling a majority of the world's superlative diamonds, colored gemstones and jewelry in the 20th century. His storied past and long legacy is continued by the House of Harry Winston and its salons in Japan, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. He regularly showed off his collection in touring exhibitions, such as the 1949 “Court of Jewels,” which featured the Hope diamond. Winston was renowned for his eye for the finest of gemstones and the ability to design pieces in order to best flaunt their natural dazzle. Winston was also a pioneer of marketing as the first jeweler to dress an Academy Awards nominee when he loaned some diamond jewelry to Jennifer Jones for the 1944 Oscar ceremony. The rarity and beauty of the gemstones he pursued and presented in his boutiques made the Winston brand synonymous with excellence. Many others followed, including the 726.60-carat Vargas from Brazil which, in 1938, he tracked down across multiple continents after he read a brief newspaper notice about its discovery. The first of the celebrated diamonds to be purchased by Winston was the 726-carat uncut Jonker, acquired in 1935. in 1932, where he influenced 20th-century-jewelry trends by always elevating the stones rather than adding the lavish decorations that had pervaded jewelry in the 19th century.
His early success involved turning that eye to estate sale collections that he transformed by freeing gemstones from dated ornamentation, giving them new cuts and modern settings.
Winston’s father had immigrated to New York from Ukraine and ran a small jewelry shop where a young Harry learned about precious stones, enough, the story goes, to identify a real emerald in a heap of pawnshop jewelry at the age of 12. Today, Winston is regarded as the “King of Diamonds” and the “Jeweler to the Stars” as one of the first to recognize the branding power of lending glitzy earrings, necklaces and other fine jewelry for red-carpet events. Among the famed gemstones that Harry Winston (1896–1978) encountered over the course of his career was the Hope diamond, which he donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958.
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