Dr. Jaffer: Made For Maharajas
By kamla bhatt • Oct 26th, 2006Category: Books and Authors, Diaspora, Hyderabad, India, London, Mumbai, New Delhi, People, Pune
Dr. Amin Jaffer author of Made For Maharajas A Design Diary of Princely India (Vendome Press, 2006) talks about the rich and lavish lifestyle of the maharajas and maharanis of India from 1857 till 1947, when India became independent.
During this period various Indian maharajas and maharanis shopped at the most expensive European design houses like Cartier, Boucheron, Van Cleef & Arpels, Louis Vuitton, Ferragamo, and others.
What makes this book interesting is the reproduction of receipts, and the stories of how the representative of the various design houses courted their Indian clients. According to Dr. Jaffer to date Cartier’s highest commission came from a sales transaction to the Maharaja of Patiala. The book is filled with stories about the lifestyle of Rani Molly of Pudukkotai; Yashwant Rao Holkar-II of Indore (that is his photo on the cover of the book); Maharaja of Kapurthala; Maharaja of Patiala and numerous other Indian princes.
Dr. Jaffer is a curator in the department of Asian Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Kamla Bhatt is the host and producer of an Internet Radio show where listeners can find stories about the new and emerging India and the global Indian community. As a pioneer of 'internet radio' format in India Kamla started her first show News about India, followed by TalkNewsIndia in 2005. In 2006 she premiered her new show: The Kamla Bhatt Show: Life, People and Ideas. 
[…] Dr. Jaffer, who was until recently with the Victoria and Albert Museum joined Christies a while ago. We did a podcast interview with Dr. Jaffer a few months ago when he was in New York. Technorati tags: mahatma gandhi, chrisites, amin jaffar, albin schram No comments for Mahatma Gandhi’s Letter/Article Sold To India » […]