Browsing through the archives at luxury French fashion house Cartier, New York based-art dealer and Columbia University PhD student Siddhartha V. Shah chanced upon the designs for a brooch with reference to the typical South Indian hair ornament.
The influence of Indian aesthetic on French design in jewellery is an area not yet fully explored, says Mr. Shah, who was in Puducherry for a talk recently. Mr. Shah is studying about the exchange between India and France in jewellery and objets d’art, as well as history of diplomatic gifts between the two countries, as part of his secondary field of study.
He cites the better-known cases of influence such as the ‘Hindu Necklace’ by Cartier commissioned by fashion icon Daisy Fellowes in 1936. European jewellery designing which had, till then, been restricted to single or double colours was introduced to multiple coloured stones. The ‘Hindu Necklace’ had platinum, white gold, diamonds, sapphires, emeralds and rubies. The use of multiple coloured stones signified the ‘Tutti frutti’ line by the fashion house. The influence is both ways, with royal Indian families, nobility and businesspersons commissioning jewellery by French designers.
The ‘Patiala Necklace’ made for Maharaja Sir Bhupinder Singh of Patiala in 1928 is one such. “In a first, Indian royal families wanted jewellery set in platinum. It was a new concept in India then,” he says. The influence is also seen in textiles, he says, citing ‘Splendeur des Maharajas’ scarves by Hermès.
With Puducherry having been the French capital of India, Mr. Shah says he is keen to study the kind of souvenirs that the French might have taken home with them from this region. “It could have likely been textiles and non-luxury jewellery,” he says. He plans to visit again for further research in this area.
Mr. Shah also gave a talk here at Kasha Ki Aasha on his primary field of study, which concerns the depiction of Hindu goddesses in Indian art. While the image of the bountiful goddess is more commonly known, there also exists the emaciated goddesses, which are found in various media from the 5th century onwards, says Mr. Shah. He looked at the differences using sacred text and poetry. This difference in representation is specific to region and time periods, he says, citing how the Krishna devotion movement in Gujarat led to a shift towards more orthodox and simple depiction of the goddess, giving her a voluptuous form.
