![]() The improbable romance that spanned class and culture began in Madrid in 1906 during preparations for the wedding between Spain's King Alfonso XIII and Princess Victoria Eugenia of Battenburg. Christie's international director of Asian art, Amin Jaffer, said: "These jewels are a symbol of cross-cultural love and taste, bringing together Indian princely patronage with the finest European craftsmanship and design." The necklace had been an adornment for his favourite elephant. The highlight among the eight pieces of jewellery, worth an estimated £200,000, is an art deco emerald, diamond and rock crystal necklace, a gift from the maharaja to his bride on her 19th birthday. ![]() Public interest was further stirred when Christie's announced this month that it would auction the late maharani's jewels in London, an event which the auction house itself hailed as evoking a fairy-tale love story "that could have been written by the finest romantic novelist, but was in fact true". The maharaja's great-grandson, Tika Shatrujit Singh, heir to the Kapurthala royal family, has challenged the actress's ambitions and threatens legal action to defend the name of his ancestor, who died in 1949, which he claims is sullied by a sensationalist fictional account of his marriage with the low-born Spanish girl. Delgado returned to Europe with a generous pension, and died in Madrid in 1962, after which her fairy-tale life story was gradually forgotten.īut the project ran into trouble, blocked by descendants of the maharaja who, although long stripped of their privileges under the Raj, still enjoy social prestige in India. The royal couple had a son, but eventually separated amid allegations of her infidelity. The rags-to-riches story intrigued and scandalised Spanish society for decades, to the point that it became said of any young woman seeking social advancement that she "wanted to marry a maharaja". She was his fifth and favourite wife and he showered with attention and jewels personally designed for her by Cartier. ![]() ![]() The modest café-owner's daughter left her homeland to live for 18 years in opulent luxury in the Himalayan foothills with Sir Jagatjit Singh. Just over a century ago, Anita Delgado, a beautiful but barely literate Spanish teenager, danced a brief flamenco in a Madrid nightclub, caught the eye of a visiting Indian prince, the Maharaja of Kapurthala, and married him. ![]()
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