Friday 9 October 2009

Sikh heirloom necklace bought by Punjabi collectors

Some super-sleuthing (well, not much actually...) has revealed that the necklace was bought by:
"two Kapurthala district-based Punjabi businessmen-cum-private collectors, Peter Virdi from Kapurthala township and his associate Dev Bath, originally from Baathan village in Kapurthala district.

They, it was learnt, bought the necklace, for a whopping £55,200 (around Rs 42 lakh), including buyer’s premium at the rate of 20 per cent. Virdi and Baath live in Central London.....The auction evoked a warm response and a large number of Punjabis, particularly Sikhs, were present,” said London-based journalist Nirpal Shergill, adding that the Sikhs felt relieved that necklace was purchased by the two Punjabi collectors." [Credit: The Tribune, Chandigarh]

So there you have it. Anyone know if the collectors display their items anywhere?

But never mind the necklace, what sounds more interesting is another piece sold yesterday, "a rare first-edition book, “The Court and Camp of Runjeet Singh” (more commonly 'Ranjit' Singh) - now who bought that?

2 comments:

Plummy Mummy said...

Ok I have to admit, I'm laughing at the thought of these two businessmen walking around their houses wearing the very beautiful necklace. I'm sure that's not the case at all but I like that image.
Have you been to the V&A to see the Maharajah exhibition? I'm thinking of taking my tot there. http://www.vam.ac.uk/microsites/maharaja/

Raven said...

That is a funny image!

No, we haven't done the Maharajah exhibition yet. But I've just looked at the website link you've given and it looks gorgeous - so we shall try to fit it in (though having school-age kids means during going ghastly busy times...)