A Royal Cartier Replica Walks the Carpet at the Met Gala

Last week, a fascinating necklace popped up on the red—well, navy floral—carpet at the annual Met Gala. The jewel is a replica of a replica of a royal necklace, with links to Hollywood, Cartier, and the glamour of a famous maharaja.

Isha Ambani, an Indian businesswoman and philanthropist, arrived at the Met Gala last week wearing a remarkable collection of jewels. The collection included rings loaned by Tiffany & Co., but everyone’s eyes were naturally drawn to the enormous diamond jewel at the base of Ambani’s necklace stack. The necklace was borrowed from Ambani’s mother, Nita Ambani. (Isha’s father and Nita’s husband, Mukesh Ambani, is currently the richest person in Asia.)

Journalist Sam Kaur confirmed that the necklace is set with genuine diamonds. She writes on Instagram, “This remarkable piece featured 89 diamonds totaling 481.42 carats, with the centerpiece being a cushion-cut diamond weighing an impressive 80.73 carats. The necklace pays homage to the legendary Maharaja of Nawanagar’s necklace, originally designed by Jacques Cartier in 1931.”

The original Cartier necklace, which no longer exists, was made for Maharaja Ranjitsinhji of Nawanagar. A famous Cambridge-educated cricketer, “Ranji” was the ruler of the princely state of Nawanagar from 1907 to 1933. He commissioned the necklace from Cartier in London, and several stones from existing pieces of jewelry from his own collection were used in the construction of the new piece.

Here’s a look at the design plans made by Jacques Cartier for Ranji’s 1931 necklace. You’ll note the inclusion of several colored gemstones here, including green and pink diamonds. The ones marked “Jam” or “Jam Saheb” are Ranji’s. (“Jam Sahib” was his native title.) Some of these were loose stones from his collection, while others were harvested from an existing necklace. Jacques Cartier was particularly delighted by the final necklace, declaring it “the finest cascade of colored diamonds in the world” and “a superb realization of a connoisseur’s dream.”

The large cushion-cut diamond at the top of the piece’s pendant section is a famous stone, the Queen of Holland Diamond. The 135.92-carat stone was cut in the Netherlands at the turn of the twentieth century and later purchased by the Maharaja. It twinkled as the centerpiece of this necklace until the piece was dismantled. Cartier bought the diamond from Ranji’s family after his death, and it remained in the collection of the maison in London for many years. Today, the Queen of Holland belongs to Robert Mouawad.

New life was breathed into the old design of the necklace almost a decade ago, when Cartier became the jewelry supplier to the heist adventure film Ocean’s 8. In the movie, Anne Hathaway plays the actress Daphne Kluger, who wears a spectacular Cartier jewel (the “Toussaint Necklace”) to the Met Gala, where a band of female thieves target the jewel. The prop necklace made by Cartier for the film is a near replica of the necklace made for the Maharaja Ranjitsinhji of Nawanagar in 1931.

The talented designers at Cartier produced the prop necklace, named in honor of the famed designer Jeanne Toussaint, for the movie using cubic zirconia instead of diamonds. The scale of the original maharaja’s necklace was reduced so that the piece would fit better on a woman’s neck, and there was no attempt to replicate the colored gems that were such an important part of Ranji’s original necklace.

Interestingly, you can see the prop necklace for yourself in person right now: it’s included in the Cartier exhibition currently on at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Above, I’ve shared my own photograph of the Ocean’s 8 necklace from my recent visit to the exhibition.

Here’s another look at Isha Ambani wearing her family’s version of the necklace at the Met Gala on May 5. It’s clear to me that this necklace is actually a replica of the prop necklace from Ocean’s 8 rather than a replica of Maharaja Ranjitsinhji’s necklace. There are no colored diamonds incorporated in the Ambani necklace, and the scale mimics the size of the 2018 replica. But it’s fascinating to see the necklace design rendered in genuine diamonds, and the lineage of the different necklaces is a testament to the endurance of Jacques Cartier’s design.