Dharitri Ganguly
Netizens suspect that Isha, the daughter of Mukesh Ambani, the richest man in India, was wearing the Jeanne Toussaint necklace, a $150 million (INR1,267 crore) Cartier piece featured in the 2018 film Ocean's 8. When Isha was asked, she said it was her mum Nita Ambani's.
This necklace, in all probability, is a replica by Cartier, of a necklace that the company had made for Maharaja Sir Ranjitsinghji Jadeja of Nawanagar, better known as the famous cricketer Ranji! Made in 1931, the Nawanagar necklace finds a prominent place in the catalogue of India’s finest jewels through history.
The necklace consisted of two strands of first-class white diamonds, which were linked on both sides by a pair of square pink diamonds. The centre pendant of the necklace comprised of several pink diamonds, a large 26- carat blue diamond, a 12-carat green diamond, and the famous 136 carat ‘Queen of Holland diamond’, a diamond larger than the 105 carat Kohinoor!
Ranji died soon after in 1933, and it was his nephew and successor Sir Digvijaysinhji Jadeja who is seen in numerous photographs wearing the necklace. It is believed that Cartier bought the necklace back from the Royal family in the 1960s. Over time, the necklace was broken down and sold as separate pieces.
Now, the Nawanagar necklace has been resurrected. The decision by Warner Brothers and Cartier to recreate the necklace, which was downsized by 15-20% for Anne Hathaway in Ocean’s 8 film is interesting, as it gives us a real-life glimpse into how this piece might have looked. While an exact replica, the necklace, instead of the famed coloured diamonds, it contains Zirconium and is a tad smaller in dimension.