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| Maharajah' of Patiala's silver dinning set. dailymail.co.uk |
Above image: The ostentatious George V silver-gilt dinner set and service cutlery weighing nearly 500-kg was made in England.by a London company 'Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Co. Sold out at an auction held by Christie's in 2013. Most expensive dinning silver set in the world with 1400 pieces of various kinds. With this kind of vast pieces to prepare a royal feast and to serve various sumptuous items, you need a host of people to do the dishes after the banquet. Each piece of the service has a scroll and foliage border above cast and chased panels of animals, separated by cast daggers and variously engraved or cast with coat-of-arms, crown and initials.
During the royal visit, there was no dearth of entertainment. The active Maharajah Bhubender Singh kept the royal guest engaged in various sporting activities like polo matches, pig-sticking and shooting during the day, followed by small dinners and informal dances. by well-dressed gals.......................
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| Maharajah' of Patiala's silver dinning set.dailymail.co.uk |
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| Maharajah' of Patiala's silver dinning set.dailymail.co.uk |
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| .Maharajah' of Patiala's silver dinning set.indiatoday.in |
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| Maharajah' of Patiala's silver dinning set.freepressjournal.in |
The erstwhile Maharajahs of the princely states of India during the British rule under the Crown Administration prior to the 1940s, though lost much of their power and and regal status as the head of the state to the canny British, they gave a special meaning to their extravagant life styles matching their status and size of land carved out of their kingdom by British India government. Their embellished palaces built in Indo-European style with big frontage, impressive columns, halls decorated with costly luminescent chandeliers and fine flooring set in the middle of a well-kept lawn were suggestive of their opulence. Expensive jewelry collections and other household items were part of their forte. The legacies they left behind for us throw light on their luxurious past that today's generation can never imagine .
Take the case of the Maharajah of Patiala of Punjab Bhupinder Singh.' A connoisseur of expensive cars and jewelry, his lavish dinner service set auctioned on 4 July 2013 by Christie's had set a new world record world for the dinning set. When Christie's held a highly advertised auction in London this sale of silver dinning set of an Indian Maharajah was a subject of discussion and gossip. The silver dinning service set is supposed to be one of the world's largest and most spectacular banqueting service. It was sold out for a whooping sum no body could think of nearly £2 million or Rs 17 crore. The set included 1,400 pieces and was ordered from London.The buyer who is believed to have been Russian and he bought it for £1,965,875 ($$2,995,994).
The Maharajah had the service set specially commissioned to be used to honor the touring Royal dignitary in 1922 Prince Edward, Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII and Duke of Windsor. The prince was on a long tour of India (1921 - 1922) as his mother queen Victoria, the Empress of India, never had set her foot on the Indian soil. It was three day royal visit to he state which ended in an astonishing banquet on 24 Fe.1922 hosted by the Punjab ruler.
The over expensive George V silver-gilt dinner-service set included such items as he 166 table-forks, 111 dessert-forks, 111 dessert-spoons, 21 table-spoons, 37 soup-spoons, six pairs of salad-servers, six pairs of asparagus-tongs, three pairs of grape-scissors, 107 table-knives with steel blades, 74 cheese-knives and 37fruit-knives . Total weighable silver 482,572 grams.
Maharajah Bhupinder Singh of Patiala (1891-1938) born at Moti Bagh Palace and educated at Aitchison College, was so rich he had his own aircraft for his personal use; being a car freak, he had 20 RR (Rolls Royce) and would travel in a motorcade. In 1908 when he reached 18 years of age, he was invested with power by Viceroy on 3 Nov. 1910. After his father Rajender singh's death since 1900 his state had been managed by a council of Regency as the successor was a minor.
