Referred to as the last of the big spenders, Maharaja Pratapsinhrao was the last royal connoisseur of luxury. The Maharaja commissioned some of the most fabulous pieces of jewelry & also some fabulous articles of daily use. One of these articles was a gold cage for his pet frog.
A gold ladder and emerald birds:
Nicknamed as “House of Hortense”, it was made to order by the famous European jewelers Van Cleef and Arpel in 1935.
Its design was on a birdcage design, with a little gold ladder in the center. The cage was also equipped with a central wading pool and two half-moon shaped and sapphire-adorned feeders. A great variety of precious materials were used in it including yellow gold, black enamel, brown agate, cabochon-cut rubies, sapphires and lapis lazuli, and coral details.
It is said that the frog had the ability to predict the weather. The weather was predicted based on the position of the frog on the ladder. It was predicted that it would rain in Baroda when the frog was at the top of the ladder.
Later when the frog died, the cage was transformed into a birdcage and the golden ladder was replaced with a swing that housed two permanent ‘Pets’ – a pair of carved emerald Love Birds with ruby eyes.
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Recently auctioned by Christie’s this exquisite work of art fetched almost $ 150,000. More than anything else the Cage represents the royal lavishness, cause what’s the royalty without some extravagance !!!!
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