The life of Anita Delgado (1890-1962) might have been drawn from a fairytale. Born in Malaga to a modest family of restaurateurs, the strikingly beautiful Anita and her sister Victoria took to the Madrid stage in their late teens in an attempt to supplement their father’s meagre income. It was by chance that Anita caught the eye of Maharaja Jagatjit Singh of Kapurthala, a charismatic francophone Indian prince who was visiting Spain to attend the marriage of Alfonso XIII to Victoria Eugenia of Battenberg in 1906. Anita had herself seen the prince on his stately arrival into Madrid, where his exotic appearance had aroused her interest. By chance he saw her as a member of the audience at the Club Central-Kursaal, where Anita and her sister entertained visitors under the name ‘The Camelia Sisters’.

Determined to meet the Spanish beauty, Jagatjit Singh became a regular visitor to the theatre. Although he showered Anita with flowers and invitations, Jagatjit Singh found that the Delgados were fiercely protective of their daughter. Only eventually did they allow him to meet Anita, who showed little sign of succumbing to the ruler’s charms. Preserving Anita’s reputation, the maharaja quickly proposed to the young dancer and invited her with her family to Paris, where the couple was married in a civil ceremony. Before making the voyage to India, Anita underwent months of training, learning French, dancing and tennis, as well as correct etiquette. She emerged as a true Parisienne, complete with a trousseau of couture gowns that occupied no fewer than 50 trunks.

Although she was popularly known as the Spanish Rani, after her arrival in Kapurthala in 1908 and the performance of Sikh wedding rites, Anita took on the name Prem Kaur, literally ‘Love of a prince’. In spite of the fact that this mixed marriage was frowned on in official circles, Anita came to play a leading role in the court life of Kapurthala, acting as hostess and companion to Jagatjit Singh, whose previous Indian wives did not fully adopt the western lifestyle which the prince himself enjoyed. Jagatjit Singh of Kapurthala was among the first Indian princes to patronise European jewellers, often supplying them with precious stones from his own treasury to be set in the latest western taste. His travel diaries, for example, regularly refer to his visits to shops, particularly those in and around Rue de la Paix, off Place Vendome in Paris. At his side, the young Anita also developed a passion for jewels, noting in her memoirs, how ‘I acquired his love for those trinkets and little by little I started building a jewellery box with those lovely and valuable pieces’.

A jewel of particular importance to Anita was a Belle Époque emerald and diamond brooch designed to highlight an extraordinary crescent-shaped emerald. This magnificent stone originally adorned the Maharaja’s most prized elephant, until, on her arrival in Kapurthala, Anita admired and was given it on her 19th birthday as a present for learning Urdu. Among her favourite pieces, Anita often wore the crescent as a forehead ornament at official events and when sitting for portraits. This early gift was matched by many successive presents of jewels, typically made by London or Paris workshops in the latest style. Among the most impressive of these pieces is a necklace hung with an angular rock-crystal pendant artfully executed in a high Art Deco style. The scale of this – and many other pieces in her collection – is evidence of Anita’s extravagant taste.

Maharaja Jagatjit Singh was a keen traveller and a friend to statesmen and rulers across the globe. He took Anita on extensive world tours, during which their movements were actively recorded in the press. Over time, the romantic story of her marriage, her candid charm and her great beauty won Anita international fame and she found herself photographed and featured in social columns and on magazine covers.
Added to this, in 1915, she published a widely-read volume recounting her life and travels in India. A Spanish journalist described Anita in the prime of her life: ‘This legendary princess is extraordinarily beautiful. Her teeth are like the rich pearl necklaces that lie across the mounds of her chest. Her cleavage is deep and very white. Her hands, covered in precious stones, are like two ermine serpents, made to be caressed.’

In spite of the luxurious life she led, Anita was a strong, philanthropic character. She played a particularly important role in caring for the many Punjabi troops who fought on European fields in the First World War and took special efforts to ensure that their remains were disposed off according to their own religious rites. Her marriage to Jagatjit Singh ended after 18 years, in 1925, and with a generous financial settlement, she separated from her husband and returned to Europe where she led a glamorous life in the beau monde. Her legendary jewels passed to her only son, Ajit (1908–1982), who sold these eight stylistically and historically significant pieces of jewellery to a European family, who are offering them for sale at Christie’s.