His father “treated the diamonds as his babies, and he would frequently play with them at his desk and would even have one in his suit pocket,” said Ronald. He was not so much accreting a collection of large diamonds as he was also breaking new ground,” Ronald Winston said. Nobody had ever done that before – collected and cut such huge stones. “He realized they were the key to his uniqueness. In “King of Diamonds” Ronald Winston writes that his father pursued a “Grail”-like quest to acquire all the world’s most famous diamonds – he famously owned the Hope Diamond before donating it to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958 – and was once said to have a collection rivaled only by the Queen of England. Two days later, he sold that same stone for $800. Spying a two-carat emerald in a pawn shop, he bought it for 25 cents. Gems seemed to obsess Harry Winston, and the first indication that they’d lead to his fortune happened when he was 12. In fact, his clients and his public tended to adore him and appreciate his openness and charm.” “This did not in any way sway him from a high level of confidence in front of people of fame and money. “My father never had an education much beyond the 9th grade, and he was very small to the point of being tiny,” Roland Winston said. “It was kind of a brutal way to impress upon a baby the uncaring nature of the world outside.” ![]() “His intention was very pure and good but was not an exceptionally fine way to educate a child,” Ronald Winston said in an email interview earlier this month. Then suddenly, Winston dropped his son “hard and fast” onto the rug, shocking the child.Īs young Ronald begins to cry, the famed jeweler tells him, “Never trust anyone in life. The opening pages of “King of Diamonds: Harry Winston, The Definitive Biography of An American Icon,” by Ronald Winston and William Stadiem, contain a telling episode from the author’s childhood: His famous jeweler father was “bouncing me around, having a wonderful time” in the family’s plush New York apartment. Marilyn Monroe ushered the name into legend when she breathlessly sang, “Talk to me, Harry Winston tell me all about it!” in 1953’s classic movie “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”īut for his eldest and only living son, Ronald Winston, the man behind the brand seems to have been a complicated person, as well as a hard-to-live-up-to icon. The world associates the name Harry Winston with glamour and jewels – it’s synonymous with Hollywood stars, royal families and captains of industry.
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