David Webb
David Webb was born in Asheville, North Carolina in 1925. He became an apprentices at his uncle’s jewelry manufacturing business and decided to pursue it. He moved to New York at 17 and found work on 47th Street. In 1948 he started his business with the financial backing of French socialite Antoinette Quilleret. In October 1950 his jewelry was featured on the cover of Vogue and soon followed was Harper’s Bazaar and Town & Country. He was still selling his work wholesale to stores such as Bergdorf Goodman and finally in 1955 he began just selling the pieces himself. In 1962 Jackie Kennedy began commissioning Webb to make the White House’s official Gifts of State. Tragically Webb passed away in 1975 aged just 50 and the firm was continued by his long-term business partner Nina Silberstein until it was sold in 2009.
