Re: The Maharaja of Patiala's diamond necklace Archived Message
Posted by LittleMo  on November 23, 2011, 4:59 am, in reply to "The Maharaja of Patiala's diamond necklace"
Thanks for this John, an interesting history.
The V&A museum in London did an exhibition from the Raj a few years ago and there was some wonderful jewellery on display there.
I wonder if anyone can confirm what those pieces were ?
(was this one of them ?)
--Previous Message--
:
:
: I recently received some information from
: the Hotel Beau Rivage in Geneva where they
: are renovating a suite named after the
: Maharaja of Patiala.
: Included in this information was the story
: of his diamond necklace 'the largest piece
: of jewelry ever made'.
: In 1888 a yellow diamond was discovered in
: South Africa weighing 428 carats & after
: it was cut 234.65 carats, the largest yellow
: octahedron diamond in the world. It was
: called the De Beers diamond & was
: acquired by the Maharaja of Patiala. In 1928
: he ordered a necklace from Cartier - 2930
: diamonds with the De Beers as the
: centrepiece. There were also seven other
: large diamonds in the necklace weighing
: between 18 and 73 carats as well as several
: Burmese rubies.
: The necklace was last seen worn by the
: Maharaja's son just befor the end of the
: British Raj. It then disappeared.
: In 1982 the diamond reappeared at a
: Southeby's auction & sold for $3.16
: milion.
: Sixteen years later someone discovered the
: rest of the necklace in a second-hand
: jewelry shop in London. The important stones
: had disappeared, unsurprisingly. Cartier
: bought this skeleton & spent four years
: restoring it, using synthetic stones.
: Wouldn't it make a great story if the
: necklace could tell its tale?
: Also, the Indian Princes were famed for
: their jewels, I wonder how much they still
: retain.
:
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