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Harry Winston: "The King of Diamonds"
When someone says 'Harry Winston,' the first thing that comes to mind is 'diamonds.'
And they are right, because Harry Winston is nicknamed 'King of Diamonds,' because
of his work on this precious stone.
The son of a New York jeweler, Harry Winston was born in 1896 in New York, spending
most of his childhood days in the city. He spent most of his teen years in Los Angeles,
when his family moved there.
At age 24, he moved back to New York and opened "The Premier Diamond Company" at 525 Fifth Avenue.
Harry Winston showed remarkable insight and resourcefulness from the start.
Perhaps his greatest revelation came when, during the Christmas holidays one
year early in his career, he was struck be the look of a holly wreath on his
door.
He noticed how the leaves themselves shaped the wreath. He wondered what
the effect might be if jewels, rather than metal, shaped the design.
This was the beginning of a revolution within the jewelry industry initiated by
Harry Winston. He began to employ light, flexible, platinum settings, which
allowed for three-dimensional arrangements of precious stones. This produced new
levels of brilliance which emphasized the jewels' own shapes.
When he died in 1978, his son Ronald continued his legacy and the House of Harry Winston
continues to be of the world's largest and most prestigious jewelry empires.
Ronald Winston began the tradition of providing jewelry to wear for Academy Awards (Oscars) in
1980, adding glitz and glamour to the already venerable name of the House of Harry Winston.
One of the most famous diamonds by Harry Winston is the Taylor-Burton diamond.
This 69.42 carat pear-shaped D-flawless diamond was cut by Harry Winston from a
241 carat piece of rough found in 1966 at the Premier Mine in South
Africa.
Harry sold the stone to Mrs. Paul Annenberg Ames in 1967.
In 1969, the stone was sold by auction in New York, and resold the following day to
Richard Burton for his wife Elizabeth Taylor.
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