Happy Birthday to Sheikha Moza bint Nasser of Qatar, who turns 65 today! The influential reformer and glamorous fashion icon who is the wife of the former and mother of the current Emir of Qatar, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser has worn several spectacular jewels, including the legendary Star of the South Diamond!
The Star of the South, also known as ‘Limar’, was found in Brazil by a Madi Magassa in 1853, and after it was handed over to her master, Casimiro de Moraes, she was rewarded by granting her freedom and a pension for life. The diamond originally weighed 254.5 carats (50.90 g) and was cut into an oval cushion shape weighing 128.48 carats (25.696 g).
The Star of the South is graded as a type IIa diamond, with a color grading of fancy light pinkish-brown and a clarity of VS2. Casimiro de Moraes sold the Diamond for £3,000, a price far lower than its actual value. The buyer deposited the diamond at the Bank of Rio de Janeiro for £30,000, and it passed through the hands of several buyers, until it was bought by Costers of Amsterdam for £35,000, when it was cut into an oval cushion shape in Amsterdam.
The Diamond was purchased by Halphen and Associates of Paris, a syndicate of diamond merchants, who named it Estrela do Sul, or Star of the South. The syndicate exhibited the diamond in 1862 at the Great London Exposition, and again in 1867 at the International Exposition in Paris, before it was sent to a diamond dealing house in India, where negotiations were carried out to sell it to a Maharajah for a price of £110,000, but the diamond was returned to Halphen and Associates.
Prince Malhār Rāo of Baroda instructed E. H. Dresden of London to purchase the diamond from Halphen and Associates for £80,000, on behalf of the Maharaja of Baroda, and it remained with the the Gaekwads of Baroda for over a century, being mounted on a necklace along with the 78.5 carat English Dresden diamond.
The Necklace was worn by the Maharaja on the most important occasions, like the Princess of Wales’ visit in 1875, when we was described:
“Sayajirao’s new wardrobe was far from limited; the Prince of Wales himself might have envied it. Sayajirao appeared at the reception as dazzling as a ‘crystallised rainbow’ in the Baroda jewels. ’He was weighted — head, neck, chest and arms, fingers and ankles — with such a wonder of vast diamonds, emeralds, rubies and pearls, as would be worth the loot of many a rich town.‘ They included a seven-stringed necklace of magnificent pearls the size of marbles; the 128-carat Star of the South, bought by Khanderao, as the centrepiece of a necklace made up of five rows of 500 diamonds and two further rows of emeralds; its matching plume of diamonds, worn in the turban; and the 70-carat Akbar Shah diamond, thought to have been one of the eyes of a peacock on the Moguls’ solid-gold Peacock Throne, taken from the Diwan-i-Khas (Hall of Public Audience) in Delhi when the Persians sacked the city in 1739.”
Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda was a fairly simple man, he got into trouble for appearing unadorned at the Delhi Durbar of 1911, but wore the famed Baroda Necklace for an official portrait taken in 1903, in the midst of his famed 64-year Reign.
In 1939, Maharaja was succeeded by his grandson, Maharaja Pratap Singh Rao Gaekwad, who scandalously married Maharani Sītā Devī, the ‘Indian Wallis Simpson’ in 1943. A few years later, Maharani Sītā Devī wore the famed Baroda Necklace for the Maharaja’s birthday in 1948.
Maharaja Pratap Singh Rao and Maharani Sītā Devī were forced by the Indian Government to go into exile in Europe in 1951 due to their extravagance, taking many jewels from the Baroda treasury to fund their lavish lifestyle. However, the Star of the South Diamond remained in India with the Maharaja’s elder son, Maharaja Fatehsinghrao Gaekwad II, remains in his possession until his death in 1988, being included in inventories disclosed in wealth tax returns filed by the Maharaja and his Maharani that year.
The Baroda Royal Family had by then been fighting countless disputes over the massive wealth and property of the Royal Family, worth $4.3 billion, among which was the Star of the South Diamond, which at some point was discreetly sold to Rustomjee Jamsetjee of Mumbai, likely by Maharaja Ranjitsinh Pratapsinh Gaekwad, as its ownership was also claimed by his younger brother, Prince Sangramsinh Gaekwad. In 2002, Rustomjee Jamsetjee sold the Star of the South Diamond to Cartier, who set the Diamond into a bracelet for the 2006 Biennale des Antiquaires in Paris.
After a gap of 75 years since it was last worn, Sheikha Moza of Qatar wore the famed Star of the South Diamond on a Cartier Bracelet at the Wedding Banquet of Crown Prince Hussein of Jordan and Rajwa Al Saif at the Al Husseiniya Palace in Amman in June 2023. It is unknown if the Sheikha purchased the Diamond herself or if it is part of the larger Al-Thani collection, but only a reappearance can confirm any suspicions.
