Indian Princes and Parisian Jewelers

The wearing of jewelry has always seemed, as it is today, an intrinsic part of Indian life. The precious metals and stones do not just represent riches or possessions, or even the necessary adjunct of the power and glory, though the great Moghuls epitomized the saying that the glory of a prince is made tangible by his buildings, his library and his jewels, but are also considered quasi divine, are believed to have astrological attributes and prophylactic properties. Precious stones have always conferred power and health on their owners, who wore them, in accordance with strict codes.

One can therefore imagine the Indian princes’ passion for jewels, and the importance of their relationships with the world of elite jewelers.

But, though occasional contacts were made between the Maharajas and European jewelers in the nineteenth century– for instance with the English jeweler Hamilton in Calcutta, or a special order placed with the French jeweler Oscar Massin- it was not until 1910-1920 that some princes were sufficiently impressed by European creations to decide to transform their legendary adornments worthy of “The Arabian Nights”.

Cartier

The first sporadic contacts with Cartier were formed in 1911, the year of the Delhi Durbar for the coronation of George V. Jacques Cartier embarked for India on the steamship “Polynesia” on a voyage lasting sixteen days via Malta, Port Said and Aden. The fob watches which were then all the rage in London and Paris also fascinated the Indian princes: The Nizam of Hyderabad chose a gold one, the Maharajah of Kapurthala, a blue enamel one, the Maharajah of Nawanagar a platinum one, and the Aga Khan one set with diamonds. As for the Nawab of Rampur, he was attracted by a gold travelling clock with striking mechanism that reproduced the sound of European cathedral bells, so attracted in fact that the bought four of the same model. Time-keeping instruments, watches, clocks and automata had been known in India since the eighteenth century, East India Company which offered them for sale at its Lall Bazaar in Calcutta, along with other European goods.

At the beginning of the 1910s, the Cartier firm was far-sighted enough to realize the potential development of import and export between Indian, Europe and America, entrusting business to the Bombay Trading Company and later, in the same spirit, to the European Watch & Clock Company.

While the wish of the Gaekwar of Baroda, Sayaji Rao III – who owned legendary diamonds as the “Star of the South” and “Empress Eugenie” given by Napoleon III to his wife, and previously the property of Potemkin (the favorite of Catherine the Great of Russia) – to have his whole collection of jewels rest in platinum by Cartier came to nothing, due to the resentment of Indian jewelers, one commission stands out as a major event in the annals of Cartier. It relates to the Crown Jewels of the Maharajah of Patiala, Sir Bhupindra Singh. A unique creation would thus emerge, comprising five magnificent platinum and diamond-set chains in the Art Deco style. In the center, a cascade of seven large diamonds ranging from 18 to 73 carats surmounted a pendant whose centerpiece was the celebrated De Beers diamond, a yellow stone of 234,69 carats. A tobacco-colored diamond of 18 carats and two rubies with a total weight of 29,58 carats brought a splash of color to the immaculate white of the whole. The finished necklace comprised 2930 diamonds for a total weight of 962,25 carats.

During the 1920s, when Indian jewelry using enamel and cut or cabochon gemstones was becoming popular in Europe, the Indian princes for their part now dreamt only of having their fabulous treasures transformed in the Art Deco style to comply with European fashions. The beauty of Cartier’s creations associating platinum with a wide range of materials struck the East with the same impact as the colors of the East had delighted Cartier. Indian princes’ treasures took the form of precious stones and they wore fabulous, invaluable jewelry; they were attracted by the novelty of platinum settings, platinum seeming to be a metal capable of setting off the depths and colors of the stones to even better advantage than gold. This was in spite of the symbolic value of gold, regarded as the celestial metal “par excellence”. From the 1920s on, Cartier’s Bond Street shop in London, a favorite destination when the Indian princes went shopping, dealt with their orders. Beyond the legendary ceremonial necklace with the De Beers diamond weighing 234,69 carats ordered in 1926 to Cartier by the Maharajah of Patiala were nose rings made of precious stone typical of southern Indian, anklets, bracelets to be worn on the upper arm, and “hathphul”,  wedding jewelry worn on the back of the hand linking a bracelet and rings, traditional to Rajasthan.

These fabulous Indian-Art-Deco jewels, immortalized in a 36-page photograph album, where displayed at the Rue de la Paix in 1928 at an exhibition which was a major event the wealthy of Europe and America would not have missed attending on any account, and it was given press coverage.

There was another commission that rivaled the Maharajah of Patiala’s not in size but in the quality of the tones. It was placed by the Maharajah of Nawanagar, ruler of a small principality with its own pearl-fisheries on the Kathiawar peninsula, the least valuable pearls being crushed and used in traditional medicine. The Maharajah commissioned Cartier to make a necklace of six rows of pearls, adoned with a 62, 93 carats cut emerald, which could on occasion be transformed into a “sarpech”, or turban ornament. His remarkably fine collection of emeralds was reset into a fine ceremonial necklace composed of seventeen rectangular emeralds including one of 70 carats coming from the coffers of the Sultan of Turkey;  a necklace set with thirteen emeralds; two head-dresses, one adorned with a 25 carats emerald, the other with a 39 carats one; and two-stand necklace of round emeralds.

In 1962, a year before his golden jubilee, Jagatijit Singh of Kapurthala (1872-1949), so delighted with a head-dress he had commissioned from Cartier which had been created without any reference to European forms, commissioned a pagoda-style diadem. It consisted of nineteen emeralds of various shapes, brilliants, rose-cut diamonds and pearls; the central hexagonal emerald weighed 177,40 carats. It is mentioned on 27 September 1926 it the entry in his diary, which he wrote in French: “ Lunch at the Ritz where I am introduced to the king of Yugoslavia, then pose in the studio of the painter Marcel Baschet in ceremonial dress, wearing a diadem”. The Maharajah was so enthusiastic about watches and clocks that a palace employee has the full-time job of keeping them wound.

Parade necklace for Sir Bhupindra Singh, Maharajah of Patiala. Special order 1928. Set with diamonds, rubies and the famous De Beers diamond weighing 234.69 carats. Disappeared, it resurfaced in London in 1998, a lot of stones missing. Cartier purchased and reset it with subsitute stones.

The Maharajah Yadavindra Singh of Patiala, wearing the necklace created for hist father Sir Bhupindra Singh in 1928. Circa 1940.

Pair of ear-pendants, Cartier Paris, special order, 1935. Paltinum, white gold, old-and single-cut diamonds, faceted and calibre-cut rubies, natural pearls.

Autochorome plate showing three ruby-ball necklaces, with pear-cut and briolette rubies, pearls and diamonds on a platinum setting, created for the Maharani of Patiala in 1930.

Necklace of Indian inspiration, platinum, engraved leaves and cabochones in emerald and pink and violet sapphires. One engraved violet sapphire weighing 66.84 carats (from Burma) and one engraved emerald leaf weighing 23.31 carats. Emeralds beads. Brilliant-cut diamonds. 2005.

Creation drawing for a brooch of Indian inspiration, platinum, rubbed emeralds, engraved rubbies, diamond beads, brilliants. 2007

Information source: https://www.dotcrush.com/indian-princes-and-parisian-jewelers/