History of Jewellery - Part XII

This is sort of another story of the one-upmanship that went on (probably goes on) in the worth of the uber-wealthy. Apparently Harry Winston had a stunning emerald necklace made in 1953 and it came to belong to the Duchess of Windsor in 1956. She wore the necklace the following year to a ball in Paris and it made quite a stir. Another person attending the ball was the Maharani of Baroda. When the Maharani was asked her opinion of the necklace she agreed that it was beautiful, adding that the emeralds were once her anklets.

The Duchess was not amused. She later traded the necklace for emeralds that had belonged to a King of Spain. Presumably he'd not worn them around his ankles. Strangely enough, either because of the incident with her anklets or because of the jewels lavished upon her by the Maharaja, or because her marriage to the Maharaja created a scandal, Sita Devi, the Marahani of Baroda was given the name the 'Indian Wallis Simpson'.