Harry Winston: A 25-Cent Emerald, Oscar Loans and the Hope Diamond by Mail

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Harry Winston was born Harry Weinstein in New York City in 1896 to Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire and grew up in his father Jacob's jewelry shop. At 12 he bought a green stone in a pawn shop for 25 cents and sold it two days later for $800; it was a two-carat emerald. He started his own business and changed his name in 1920 and opened his New York store in 1932. In 1926 he bought the jewelry collection of Arabella Huntington, widow of railroad magnate Henry E. Huntington, for $1.2 million, then removed the stones from their dated settings and reset them in modern designs.

Starting with Jennifer Jones in 1944, Winston lent jewels to stars for the Academy Awards, and Katharine Hepburn wore his Inquisition necklace in 1947. Marilyn Monroe sang his name in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. In 1974, after a $24.5 million purchase from De Beers, Harry Oppenheimer rolled him a 181-carat rough diamond to sweeten the deal. Winston recut historic stones including the Nassak, once the eye of a Shiva idol, and had the 726-carat Jonker cleaved. In 1958 he donated the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian by registered first-class mail. After his death in December 1978 his sons Ronald and Bruce fought for years, and Swatch Group bought the company for $1 billion in 2013.

• The Nassak, looted in the Third Anglo-Maratha War and once set in a Marquess of Westminster's sword hilt, was recut to a 43.38-carat emerald cut.
• The Jonker was the first major diamond crystal cleaved in the United States, and its 125-carat main stone went to King Farouk of Egypt.
• Postage for the Hope Diamond was $2.44 plus about $140 for insurance, and the Smithsonian kept the brown paper wrapper.
• In 1963 Winston traded the 127-carat Portuguese diamond to the Smithsonian for 3,800 carats of small diamonds.
• In 2000 Ronald Winston bought out his brother Bruce for $54.1 million with a private equity partner.