Legendry Patiala Necklace

“ The House of Cartier” was well-famed as the goldsmith of kings and queens.

But despite the long list of kings and princesses, whose the House of Cartier made their royal jewelry , the necklace of the Indian prince Bhupinder Singh, Maharaja of Patiala, a princely state , is still the prettiest in the history of the French dignitary house.

The Necklace of Patiala has rare beauty and an exceptional design.

It was designed by the House of Cartier at the order of Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala in 1928 and it is one of the most precious jewelry at any time.

The necklace consists of five dangling chains made of platinum inlaid with diamond of various volumes.

The necklace extends down to the waistline.

It contains 2930 diamonds that weigh 962.25 carats and in the middle of the last chain hung the rare well –known yellow centerpiece of De Beers diamond which was extracted in 1888.

The Indian Maharaja bought that unique diamond when it was auctioned in Paris at the beginning of the last century.

That diamond weighs 235 carats and it the seventh largest diamond discovered by De Bears.

The Indian Maharaja wore that necklace for ten years and his son Yadavindra wore it after the death of his father as he succeeded him to the throne.

But when India got independence from Britain in 1947, the states of the maharajas disappeared from the new republic so the necklace of Patiala also disappeared and no one knows where it is.

The necklace re-appeared again at one of jewelry shops in London in 1998 because Eric Nussbaum, the manager of Cartier’s Museums found the necklace after negotiations lasted for ten years with its heiress.

The French house was able to buy the necklace from Patiala family and restore it to regain its previous beauty.

As Cartier House got the remnants of the necklace, experts of the house spent four years in restoring it to return it to its first shape.

Parts of the necklace were damaged and seven big diamonds that weigh 18-73 carats in the upper lines lost in addition to the diamond of De Bears itself.

The experts repaired the damaged parts and returned the necklace to shop window after it returned to its original smith.

In an attempt to restore the necklace to its original shape, the experts sought to replace the lost diamonds with another pieces of precious stones like white topaz and white ruby but the results were disappointing as the original diamonds did not exist so far even at De Bears .

However, they continued attempts to find alternatives of zircon which is called American diamond to replace the big lost diamonds of the necklace in addition to use artificial ruby instead of the natural one.

The experts used an artificial material as alternative of the rare diamond of De Bears.

But Cartier House did reveal the nature of that material so far meanwhile, some sources pointed out that material is the yellow artificial ruby of zircon.

After Cartier House had regained Patiala Necklace in 2002, it showed it inside the museums of the house to be watched by the public following its restoration.

Translated by Ahmed Moamar