The sparkling history of the Holkar dynasty of Indore
The Holkar dynasty of Indore is renowned throughout the world for their grand collection of jewels and the finest of jewellery. It was estimated that the entire jewellery collection of the Maharaja during the 1930s-40s was around 40 million dollars. Amongst all, it was said that Maharaja Yeshwantrao Holkar had the strongest penchant for jewellery. He had even invited French jewellers to the likes of Van Clef, Arpels, Chaumet and Moubassin to craft some masterpieces for him. The most popular jewellery pieces in the Holkar collection were the bejewelled dazzling peacock turban, the Indore Pears, the Jonker and Porter Rhodes diamonds, amongst many other such jewels . The fabled peacock bejewelled turban was crafted using rubies, diamonds, emeralds, sapphires and pearls . In order to give the impression of a crown on a turban, European goldsmiths were employed for the job. Another fabled artifact in their collection was the bejewelled walking stick with elephant-shaped ha...