Maharani of Jaipur’s Cartier Ruby Suite

Today marks the Anniversary of the Birth of Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur, who was born on this day in 1919! The Cooch Behar Princess who married the dashing Maharaja of Jaipur, becoming the glamorous Maharani who won the world’s largest landslide election victory and was later jailed by the Indian Government ‘playing badminton with the prostitutes & murderesses’, Maharani Gayatri Devi possessed a spectacular jewellery collection, which included this Cartier Ruby Suite!

Cartier Emerald Suite | Cartier Ruby Suite

The spectacular Cartier Ruby and Diamond Necklace, with a detachable sensual element that can be worn as a clip brooch, was created by Cartier in London in 1954, while the pair of Earrings were created several years earlier, probably around the time Princess Gayatri Devi of Cooch Behar married the Maharaja of Jaipur.

Stiff collars worn tight round the neck were fashionable in the early post-war years. Like many such necklaces, the central element detaches for wear as a clip brooch. The pointed clasp with its fancy-cut diamond is an integral part of the collar.

Although cased together by Cartier, the earrings are different in style from the necklace so must have been made at a different time and were not designed to match. They are unmarked.

Maharani Gayatri Devi was photographed wearing the Cartier Ruby Necklace soon after its creation for what seems to be an art class in a foreign country, likely the United Kingdom in the mid 1950s.

A portrait of the Maharani of Jaipur wearing the Cartier Ruby Necklace was taken around the same time.

In the 1960s, Maharani Gayatri Devi was photographed wearing the Cartier Ruby Necklace and Earrings for a cocktail party.

Disillusioned by the state of India and its government, especially after being jailed during the Emergency, the Maharani seems to gave anonymously donated some of her most prominent jewels to the British Museum around 2001, which included her Cartier Ruby Suite as well as her Cartier Emerald Suite.

These jewels are on display at (G47/dc14) and have also been displayed in exhibitions around the world, including at the ‘Maharaja: The Splendour of India’s Royal Courts’ Exhibit in Toronto in 2010 and 2011, San Francisco in 2011 and 2012, Richmond, Virginia in 2012, and Chicago in 2012 and 2013.

Cartier Emerald Suite | Cartier Ruby Suite