Patiala on your Plate

Amit Roy London July 6 Lot number 15 in Christiersquos ldquoExceptional Salerdquo came up for bidding at its auction rooms in King Street Mayfair precisely at 724 pm London time on Thursday The auctioneer Jussi Pylkkaumlnen president of Christiersquos Europe Middle East Russia and India introduced the dinner service which had once belonged to Maharajah Sir Bhupinder Singh of Patiala as ldquomagnificentrdquo and started the ball rolling at pound700000 The lot comprised 1400 separate items solid silver gilded in gold but were being sold as a single dinner service For the uninitiated the bidding process was bewildering and dizzy ldquopound700000 pound800000rdquo On the screen were the figures in various currencies pounds dollars euros but no desi rupees alas and an image of the impressive centerpiece of the service How Maharajahs dined The Patiala dinner service sold on July 4 It was part of the service shown off at a Christiersquos party Make It had been made to the Maharajahrsquos order in 1921 by the Goldsmithsrsquo and Silversmithsrsquo Company in London later bought by Garrard and shipped across to Patiala in time for a one off use by Bhupinder Singh who was having a very special guest to dinner Edward the then Prince of Wales The menu is not known but the Royal kitchens must have worked overtime to produce a banquet fit for a future king of England All that is being divulged is that an attempt was made to auction the service in the 1970s but it was unsold It was bought privately some years later and was being offered now as ldquothe property of a gentlemanrdquo Jussi jaise koi nahin Auctioneer Jussi Pylkkaumlnen President of Christie39s Europe Middle East Russia and India conducts the bidding for the Maharajah39s dinner service Experts at Christiersquos Harry WilliamsBulkeley senior director European head of silver department and Amin Jaffar international director of Asian Art had estimated the sale price would fall between pound1m and pound15m Who would buy such a service An Arab sheikh Lakshmi Mittal One of the modern Maharajahs of corporate India such as Mukesh Ambani A Bollywood star for use in a future blockbuster In the auction room within 60 seconds or so the bid had got to a cool million pounds From the album The Prince of Wales on a visit to India in 1922 Maharajah WilliamsBulkeley has almost brought Bhupinder Singh 18911938 to life ldquoThe Maharajah was a great hero of British school children He used to go to Lordrsquos and watch the cricket there He was a great cricketer He was always besieged for autographs He was always incredibly good at giving his autographs so much so he would end up with writerrsquos cramp I love the idea that he had the first aeroplane and he started the Patiala Aviation Club It must have been lsquonumber of members onersquo He had over 20 RollsRoyces At one point he had a falling out with them because they wouldnrsquot do something for him and they had to send an envoy out to apologise and placate himrdquo Oh so sterling really Table for 234hellip As ruler he was surprisingly popular despite his wild extravagance ldquoHe was a monarch of the people more than anyone had been before He came to the UK a great deal and had a strong profile in the UK It his visits was very well reported When I put his name into The Times index there were endless entries with him going to Ascot or Lordrsquosrdquo Shell well well Harry WilliamsBulkeley picks out a favourite piece Items WilliamsBulkeley picked up one of the items from the dinner service ldquoThe most distinctive are the shell shaped baskets The general form is from the 1740s of English silver but they added the elephant on the handle and added Indian inspired ornaments and then a royal lionrsquos mask and then the Maharajahrsquos coat of arms The English ones tend to have dolphin feet but these have lionrsquos pawsrdquo Expert ease Christie39s experts from left Amin Jaffer International Director of Asian Art and Harry WilliamsBulkeley senior director European Head of Silver department Jaffar meanwhile who has written several books on Indian art said ldquoI have signed off my next book which is a book on Indian jewellery it starts with the Mughal period down to contemporary It will be launched in London on November 6 The irony is I published this a reference to the dinner service in my Made for Maharajas book I had no idea then I would see this set I never thought we would have the honour to be handling itrdquo The man the millions Maharajah Bhupinder Singh of Patiala Tradition The Maharajah of Patiala probably used the service only once He was keen to make a good impression on the Prince of Wales who was undertaking quite an extensive tour of India in 192122 In December 1921 the Prince of Wales was in Calcutta then the seat of the British Raj Though the Amritsar massacre had taken place in 1919 there was an assumption that the sun would never set on the British Empire and the Raj would last forever The Maharajah was keen to demonstrate the old Indian tradition Atithi devo bhava guest is God Research According to all the research done by Christiersquos the Prince of Wales ldquotravelled to Patiala by train arriving at 830 am on the morning of the 22nd February The Maharajah and a large reception party met him the royal suite was then escorted by the State cavalry to the Moti Bagh Palace through streets lined with peopleu00a0 ldquoOn his arrival at the palace the Prince reviewed the troops and then accompanied by the Maharajah ventured out on his horse into the huge crowd which included some 10000 former soldiers who had served in the First World Warrdquo the notes add ldquoThis part of the Princersquos tour was partly intended as a restful time for the Prince and after the review there was no official timetable The Maharajah entertained the Prince with polo matches pig sticking and shooting The dinners were small and the dances informal Only on the last evening was a large event held The State Banquet for 200 people on February 24 for which this dinner service was commissioned was a lavish sendoff for the Royal guest who departed for Lahore by train at 11 pm that evening following the dinnerrdquo History The only conclusion that can be drawn is that Bhupinder Singh who clearly wanted to ingratiate himself with the future King of England need not have bothered Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David 23 June 1894 28 May 1972 the eldest son of King George V and Queen Mary was created Prince of Wales on his 16th birthday He became Edward VIII in 1936 But he was ldquoKing of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth and Emperor of Indiardquo only from January 20 to December 11 1936 He was never crowned He abdicated when told by the cabinet he could not remain king if he insisted on marrying an American divorcee Mrs Wallis Simpson So that big dinner in 1922 hosted by His Highness was an expensive but ultimately unnecessary investment Description The dinner service is so extensive that before the sale only the most eye catching items could be displayed on a long table In a nearby anteroom the rest of the service was piled into wooden compartments The centrepiece of the service is described thus ldquoFormed as three bowls supported on shaped conforming stand the flower and foliage decorated feet applied with cast elephantrsquos mask the handles of the bowls with cast lionrsquos masksrdquo There is a set of four fivelight candelabra ldquoeach on four lionrsquos paw feet the stands applied with cast elephant masksrdquo There is a pair of souptureens covers and ladle ldquowith lionrsquos maskcapped handles the detachable covers with quatrefoil ogee loop handlesrdquo And so it goes on and on ldquotwo centrepiecebowls each oval and with lionrsquos maskcapped handles and on four lionrsquos paw feetrdquo ldquoa set of three meat dish covers each oval with a quatrefoil ogee loop handlerdquo ldquoa set of 148 dessert plates each shaped circular the border cast with animals in medallions surrounded by flowers further cast with initials and a crownrdquo ldquo183 dinner plates each shaped circular the border cast with animals in medallions surrounded by flowers further cast with initials and a crownrdquo ldquoa set of 18 mustard pots and 18 mustard spoons each on circular spreading foot with lion maskcapped scrolling handles the hinged cover with bud finial each marked underneath and inside coverrdquo and ldquo43 finger bowls each circular on conforming baserdquo Then there are ldquo166 table forks 111 dessert forks 111 dessert spoons 21 table spoonsrdquo Pinched After a while it must have got exhausting for royal staff to keep a check on the service let alone doing the washing up The odd numbers indicate some items either got pinched perhaps even by the Princersquos party or mislaid In the auction room on Thursday Pylkkaumlnenrsquos demeanour was brisk ldquopound11m pound12m pound13mrdquo The bidding got to pound14m then pound15m then pound16m At pound17m Pylkkaumlnen brought down the hammer Sellerrsquos and buyerrsquos premium and value added tax are payable on top The time was 726pm From start to finish the process had taken a roller coaster two minutes There was a formal announcement from Christiersquos that the dinner service ldquosold for pound1965875 2995994 setting a new world auction record for an English dinner service Expected to sell for pound115million it was bought in the room by a private collector who did not wish to be identifiedrdquou00a0