The Nizam's Jewels!

We were at the Salar Jung Museum a week back! It's the single largest "one man" collection, from around the world. If this one man had not chosen to remain a bachelor the world would have been bereft of one of the greatest collection of antiques. These art objects were collected by Yusuf Ali Salar Jung, the Prime minister to the Nizam. Though Salar Jung III is credited with this fantastic collections, it all started with his father and grandfather ....


Star Attraction of the trip????


The Nizam's Jewels!!!!!!!!!!!!

An unbelievable exhibition showcasing some of the biggest and the most precious jewels I (or for that matter u!) would see in this lifetime!

The Imperial Diamond (Jacob)

Discovered in the 19th century, Jacob, also called as the Imperial Diamond weighs 184.5 carats and has 58 facets. It was sold to the Nizam of Hydrabad in Rs 46,00,000 in 1891 by Alexander Malcolm Jacob.

Emeralds

The Nizam’s collection has 22 emeralds of different sizes. Most of them are octagonal with few rectangular cut. Total weight of the collection goes to 413.5 carats.

http://www.eastbeads.com/galleryofnizam.asp

It was wonderful to see the treasures displayed: The sarpech and kalghi ornaments meant for the turban, made up of dazzling diamonds and rubies and pendant emeralds; the multi-stringed necklaces strung with pearls of lustrous hue; ruby-and-emerald-and-gold bracelets; diamond-studded paizeb-anklets; sarpattis and finger-rings and bazubands; even the fabled Jacob Diamond of 184.5 carats which, according to legend, the late Nizam used to keep on his work-table as a paper weight.

There was a fairly expensive entry ticket, but this did not keep anyone from coming. In fact, so large has been the visitorship that tickets had to be issued for specific timings, and all that a visitor was allowed to spend in the gallery was something like half an hour. It is clear that it was not any kind of connoisseurship but the sheer glamour of the collection, the thrall in which jewellery holds most of us Indians in any case, which was bringing the crowds in. One could see whole families in awed silence, in that darkened and discreetly-lit gallery, moving starry-eyed from showcase to showcase, pointing things out to one another, stopping sometimes to read a label, sometimes to gaze at the mystifying finger-ring whose alexanderite stone naturally changes colour as the light around it changes.

Attention: This exhibiton has moved to Delhi and is currently housed at the National Museum! Its most definitely worth every paise! Do not miss it!!!!