The Patiala Necklace

The Patiala Necklace is perhaps one of those rare treasures that is truly a symbol of an era in which royalty was taking its last breath.

It was commissioned by the Maharaja of Patiala, Sir Bhupinder Singh. He happens to be the grandfather of Capt. Amarinder Singh, former Chief Minister of Punjab.

The story goes that the Maharaja went to Cartier's one morning with a chest, opened it and asked them to create a neckace for him using all the stones in it. That chest was overflowing with various precious stones which later formed the Patiala Necklace. A necklace so maginificent in its beauty that Cartier requested it to be displayed before the Maharaja took it to India. However, this neckalce was mysteriously lost in 1948 and reapppeared in 1998, 50 years later in London.

Justifiably, the person to find it, was a Cartier representative. All the fabulous stones had been lost. All that remained was the strings and some of the stones. Cartier took it upon itself to restore the neckace to its former glory. However, they had to replace the original stones with fake ones.

One might wonder what does a necklace such as this weigh? 1.6 kilos when it was first made. It is truly a masterpiece of its time and definitely to die for.

image source: famousdiamonds.tripod.com/debeersdiamond.html