Maharani Jindan’s necklace fetches ₹1.78 cr at London auction
LONDON:AN emerald and seed pearl necklace worn by Maharani Jindan, the wife of Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh, sold for ₹1.78 crore (£187,500) at Bonhams Islamic and Indian Art sale in London on Tuesday. It was among a number of select Sikh treasures on sale, and was estimated at ₹75.9 lakh to ₹1.13 crore (£80,000-£120,000).
A gold thread-embroidered, velvet-clad leather quiver and bow holder, almost certainly made for Maharaja Ranjit Singh, called the Lion of Punjab, fetched ₹94.5 lakh (£100,000).
It is believed that the maharaja commissioned a quiver in 1838 to wear at the wedding of his eldest son and heir, Kharak Singh. He appears to be wearing this in a painting of the same year by French artist Alfred de Dreaux, now in the Louvre museum in Paris.
The necklace was said to have been frequently worn by Maharani Jindan. As regent to her five-year-old son, Duleep Singh, who was proclaimed the maharaja in 1843, the feisty Jindan organised an armed resistance to the British invasion but was imprisoned.
She escaped to Kathmandu where she was kept under house arrest by the king of Nepal before eventually moving to England. It was there that she was reunited with her son and her jewellery, including the necklace.
FIERCE BIDDING
Oliver White, the head of the Indian and Islamic art at Bonhams, said the sale witnessed fierce and competitive bidding in the room, on the phones and over the net. “It was a highly successful sale, the Sikh treasures stood out with the pride of place going to the magnificent necklace from the fabled Lahore treasury that once belonged to the formidable and courageous Jindan Kaur.”
At ₹1.18 crore (£125,000), the Lockwood Kipling album providing an insight into Punjab under the British rule also fetched a good price. Compiled by artist, curator and school administrator Lockwood Kipling – father of the poet and novelist Rudyard Kipling – this collection of 120 photographs provides a fascinating insight into India, particularly Punjab, in the last quarter of the 19th century.