Patiala Necklace Lost, Found & Restored(?)

  

Gems fascinate almost everyone. They sparkle, shimmer, and glimmer with mystery and beauty. I have also been fascinated by the glitter they produce which digs deep into me. This fantastic piece of antique jewelry, the 'Patiala Necklace' as majestic it looks, instantly attracted my attention while going through the history pages. My mom Savitri Devi was perhaps the first person to induce me to go for gems in the first place. She decided to buy a diamond stone ring - a first in our family, for offering to Harvinder on our engagement.

The Patiala Necklace, the largest single commission Cartier ever executed, symbolized the Maharaja’s wealth and power and is a metaphor to the lifestyle he led. It is also modern in both dimension and its geometrical format. It was made of platinum, breaking up with the tradition of yellow gold that was prevalent then.

Discovered in a South African De Beers mine in March 1888, the pale yellow Octahedron diamond was cut and displayed at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1889 where it caused a sensation. Its present weight of 234.69 carats was the inevitable result of 200 carats being lost during the cutting process from its original, natural state. It was purchased by Rajendra Singh, the Maharaja of Patiala at the time of the Paris Exhibition. Although he never had it mounted, it is believed that Maharaja Rajendra Singh may have worn it on his turban.

Jacques Cartier with Indian gemstone merchants, 1911, Cartier Archives. Since his first trip to India, in 1911, Jacques Cartier (1884-1942) had become familiar with the extravagant tastes of the maharajas. Fabulously rich and passionate about precious stones, the Indian princes stopped at nothing to satisfy their perpetual appetite for jewels.

Maharaja Rajendra's son, Bhupinder Singh often visited London and Paris. Maharaja Sir Bhupinder Singh, the magnificent ruler of Patiala was an avid collector of all things fine- cars, horses, watches, paintings. But his special passion was jewels. During the years of the Great Depression, his commissioning of jewelery sustained many European jewelers. - Westley Richards made his guns in Birmingham, England; S. T. Dupont created his lighters in Paris; and Rolls Royce supplied the Maharaja with his cars. 

Maharaja of Patiala, Bhupinder Singh

In 1925, Maharaja Bhupinder visited Cartier's in Paris with an abundant cache of loose stones in tow and with the intention of creating a ceremonial necklace; among those loose stones were the yellow De Beers diamond, another large, tobacco-colored diamond, and two Burmese rubies. To help finance the new commission, Maharaja Bhupinder Singh sold Cartier some of the pink diamonds and pearls that he brought with him and which, at the time, were reputed to be worth more than a Rembrandt.

In 1926, the Parisian jewelry workshops of Cartier SA received a special delivery: a trunk full of precious stones and jewelry, including the De Beers diamond, from the Maharaja of Patiala, Bhupinder Singh, with a request for creating a ceremonial necklace worthy enough for a king. 

Three years of labor and patience later, the iconic Collier de Patiala, or the Patiala Necklace, was created in 1928. The massive art decor  necklace is famous for its unmatched brilliance and extraordinary design. With five rows of diamond-encrusted platinum chains, the necklace originally contained 2,930 diamonds and weighed 962.25 carats. In the centre, a cascade of seven large diamonds, each between 18 carats and 73 carats, surmounted a pendant where the iconic De Beers rested. A tobacco-colored  diamond of 18 carats and two rubies weighing 29.58 carats completed the color scheme. This necklace later came to be called the 'Patiala Necklace', Cartier’s largest single commission ever. The masterpiece looked so exquisite that Cartier sought the Maharaja’s permission to put it on display before sending it to India.

The Maharaja of Patiala wore this necklace on special occasions. However, post 1947, the state fell on hard times and stones from this necklace were dismantled and sold off separately. All that remained were the platinum chains in which this necklace was set. This too disappeared from Patiala. The $25 million necklace sparked controversy after the end of the Raj, when it disappeared mysteriously from the royal treasury of Patiala in April 1948. The last man to wear it was Maharaja Yadavindra Singh, son and heir of Maharaja Bhupinder Singh. 

Five decades later in 1998. Eric Nussbaum, a Swiss born gemologist working with Cartier, stared in complete disbelief. He couldn’t  believe what he was seeing. Like a palaeontologist  who had stumbled upon a rare fossil of a once mighty dinosaur, he proceeded to inspect the skeletal remains with great detail. For these were no ordinary remains, but those of one of the most spectacular pieces of jewelry ever created. In an antique store in London, Eric Nussbaum found the platinum chains which formed the base for the fabled Patiala Necklace. Soon, the news of the discovery was all over the papers. The story of the Patiala necklace was back from the dusty pages of history into the limelight.

Maharaja Yadvinder Singh was last seen wearing the necklace in 1948.

After its chance discovery, Mr. Nussbaum purchased the fragmented Patiala pieces and offered to restore it using substitute gems. To that end, Cartier, deciding it was impossible to restore the original De Beers diamond and the rubies, attempted to substitute the missing gems with white and yellow sapphires as well as with white topazes and garnets but, to their dismay, it was found that the topazes lacked the light refraction and brilliance of diamonds. So, at Nussbaum's suggestion, the decision was made to use synthetic stones instead: cubic zirconium in place of the absent diamonds and synthetic rubies for the natural ones. It took Cartier two years to reassemble the necklace.

At the end of its restoration, the necklace was once more exhibited by Cartier, this time in the window of its New York boutique in 2002. It now appears as it once did in 1928 - albeit, without the panache of its natural stones. Had it possessed those original gemstones, in today's market, it is estimated that the Patiala Necklace would be worth in the region of $20-$30 million.

There still exists a Maharaja of Patiala: Amarinder Singh. According to family legend, a sacred fire was given to the founder of the Patiala family nearly three-hundred years ago. As long as the fire exists, it is believed, so will the Singh family; today, much as they had done for centuries, religious dignitaries still protect the fire and the family is thriving.

In Cartier New York

The necklace was displayed by Cartier across the world to rave reviews. The New York Times wrote gushingly “The crowds are lining up in front of Cartier on Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street, but they are not your average New York Christmas shoppers. They are passers-by staring, aghast, at a fabulous piece of antique jewelry. It’s not even for sale. Nor was it made to satisfy a beautiful woman. It is an ornament made to adorn the chest of a man”. A fitting tribute to the most spectacular piece of platinum jewellery ever created!