“Talk to me Harry Winston! Tell me all about it”, a breathy Marilyn Monroe exclaimed in the 1953 movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, as she performed ‘Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend’, perfectly summing up the jubilant attitude towards diamond’s most famous namesake. Harry Winston’s innovative design philosophy –in which individual gemstones, rather than metal settings, would dictate each design – helped to revolutionise fine jewellery designs, and remains the cornerstone of a timeless aesthetic that continues to inspire all Harry Winston creations.

Winston’s passion for precious stones led him to acquire some of the greatest gemstones of the world, amongst them the Jonker, the Lesotho, the Hope, the Idol’s Eye and the Indore Pears, aptly earning him the title of “King of Diamonds” ( Elise and Harmon Tupper, “King of Diamonds” in Cosmopolitan, April 1947, pg.48 ). The first jeweller to lend his diamond creations to celebrities on the red carpet, Harry Winston also became known as the “Jeweller to the Stars”, his name synonymous with magnificence and glamour.

A fascination with diamonds is what charted the career path for Harry Winston. He likened diamonds to ‘stars one can touch’. Spellbound by their allure, he dedicated his life and career to tapping their beauty and showcasing it to the world. Mr. Winston wanted his settings to place more emphasis on the beauty of the gemstones, and was once quoted saying: “People will stare. Make it worth their while.”

Harry Winston gradually developed a manufacturing technique that would later become the ‘Winston’ hallmark in the jewellery industry: fine, handmade, flexible, unobtrusive wire settings of platinum and gold, almost invisible to the eye.

This magnificent necklace combines an elegant and delicate design with exceptional stones and exquisite workmanship. Designed as a cascade of diamonds, the nine graduated pear-shaped stones at the front, all D colour and Internally Flawless, have been meticulously selected to match the standard of quality that is paramount to the Harry Winston brand. Mr. Winston sometimes waited years to obtain just the right stones to complete a particular piece and this is no exception. The necklace offered here also displays the signature ‘Winston’ flair of distinctive arrangements of diamond clusters comprising variously shaped attractive stones of complementary sizes and remarkable brilliance. The result is a true Harry Winston masterpiece of pure opulence that Sotheby’s is proud to present at auction.

“Diamonds convey permanence and power, but also love and romance. They represent clarity, luminosity, brilliance, status and glamour. And as Harry Winston perceived early and always, diamonds, like Proust’s madeleines, have the ability to evoke the most profound moments of happiness” – Andre Leon Talley