When royalty met Rolls-Royce: Indian maharajas' love affair with luxury
Rolls-Royce. Epitomizing the lifestyle of "champagne wishes and caviar dreams," these royals embodied Coco Chanel's notion of luxury—where true extravagance begins after necessity ends. Take, for instance, Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala in the 1920s, who commissioned Cartier to create a lavish necklace featuring the seventh-largest polished diamond in the world, a rare 234.65 carat yellow cushion-cut De Beers diamond, weighing around 1,000 carats in total.
Another notable figure, Maharaja Pratapsinhrao, commissioned a golden cage from Van Cleef & Arpels for his pet frog, which he whimsically employed as a local weather forecaster in Baroda. This cage, adorned with rubies, sapphires, agate, and gold, was as extraordinary as its purpose. Meanwhile, the Nizam of Hyderabad, Osman Ali Khan, utilized a rare Jacob diamond simply as a paperweight.
These displays of lavishness made the maharajas essential clients for luxury brands. This point is illustrated by the fact that, while the British uber-luxury automaker Rolls-Royce sold 50-60 cars in India last year, between 1903 and 1945, approximately 800 of its vehicles were delivered to India, some even adorned with fine gold. Mir Osman Ali Khan, the Nizam of Hyderabad, once declared the world's richest man by Time magazine, owned 50 Rolls-Royce cars, including the esteemed Silver Ghost.
He was not alone in his admiration for this marvel of engineering. Sir Fateh Singh Bahadur, the Maharana of Udaipur and Mewar, also cherished a 1914 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. They were in good company, joined by global magnates such as Lionel de Rothschild and the Duke of Westminster, who also owned this prestigious vehicle.
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