Royal one-upmanship in colonial India was not limited to romantic intrigues and loyalty to the British crown. The intense rivalry amongst princely states was not limited to gun salute allocations and honorary titles, it extended to royal visits too.
The opulent and lavish lifestyles, often funded by taxpayers, were a good way to impress the British rulers of India and fellow princely states. The Maharaja of Patiala commissioned a silver-gilt banqueting service of over 1,400 pieces from an English company for the visit of the Prince of Wales to Patiala in February 1922.
This “incredible rare” service was sold for almost $3 million (£1.965 million) by Christie’s to a private Russian buyer, achieving a world record for the sale of an English dinner service.
The provenance of the dinner service and its size — it has over 180 dinner plates — boosted the final price, says Harry Williams-Bulkeley, European head of silver at Christie’s. “This is the only one dinner service of this size I have seen in the 20 years of my career.”
He reveals that he has seen a similar service, but on a very small scale, made for an Indian family, which did not have any royal connections.
The service, embellished with coat-of-arms, crown and initials, first surfaced in 1977 in an auction, where it failed to sell. It was brought by the previous owner in a private sale in the late 1970s or early 1980s.
The dinner service, commissioned from Goldsmiths’ and Silversmiths’ Company in 1921, was ordered by Bhupinder Singh in honour of the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VIII who abdicated the British throne for love in 1936. The two royals were almost the same age — Bhupinder Singh was born in 1891 and Edward, son of King George V, was born in 1894.
The contrast between the two royals could not be starker by just looking at their romantic history — the Maharaja of Patiala, who died in 1938, was married 10 times, had innumerable concubines, and had 88 children. However, Edward, a womaniser who caused headaches to the British politicians by his liaisons with married women, abdicated his throne for love of American divorcee Wallis Simpson in 1936.
The dinner service, comprising over 1,400 pieces, also highlights the opulence and lavish lifestyle of Bhupinder Singh, who was not even the richest Indian royal — the Nizam of Hyderabad Osman Ali Khan was considered the richest man in the world at the time.
The Patiala Maharaja, who also had commissioned the magnificent Patiala necklace from Cartier, was nevertheless the first Indian to own an aircraft and travelled in a motorcade of 20 Rolls-Royces as the Nizam was more interested in acquiring diamonds and jewellery.
The Prince of Wales toured the Indian sub-continent in 1921 and 1922 and the princely states scrambled desperately to be honoured with a visit by the heir to the British throne. The Nizam, the closest ally of the British in the Indian empire, got to host the Prince of Wales first. Hyderabad, with its allocation of 21-gun hereditary salute, got precedence over other royals in colonial India.
The British prince, who had a higher status than any of his Indian royal hosts, visited Patiala in February. The Maharaja, who captained Indian cricket team in 1911 and 1932 tours of England, entertained the Prince of Wales during his three-day visit with polo matches, pig-sticking, and shooting. The state banquet on February 24 for 200 people, during which the service was used, was held on the last day of Edward’s visit as a lavish send-off.
Bhupinder Singh, who was almost of same age as the Nizam, had an intense love-hate relationship with the Hyderabad ruler. The Maharaja took up the Nizam’s cause with the British as the chancellor of the Indian Chamber of Princes when Osman Ali Khan was stripped of his powers. But he also revealed the private correspondence from the Nizam to the British after his appeal for a loan to tide over financial crisis was rejected by the Nizam. It was a huge setback for the Nizam as Indian royals were not allowed to keep in touch with each other independent of the British.
The Indian royal connection and the history boosted the price of the service, which had been estimated to sell for £1-1.5 million, says Mr Williams-Bulkeley. “Although there was Indian interest in the service, it did not go to India as there is a wider international interest in works of art that are rare and have special history.”