The Maharaja of Baroda, Gaekwar Khande Rao, is the party responsible for one of the most magnificent pearl creations this world has ever seen. The Baroda Pearl Carpet is a work of art; more than 1.5 million pearls were sewn together by Gujarat jewelers to make this massive (2.72 x 1.62M) masterpiece.Some say the carpet consists of 2.2 million pearls and beads. Apparently nobody has bothered to count, go figure. But let’s consider 1.5 million, the official estimate. Considering a generous average of one pearl per 500 gulf oysters, the carpet represents 750,000,000 million oyster souls. Kokichi Mikimoto, in perfect adept of Shinto and Buddhist religions, dedicated a temple for the souls of all the oysters who produced his pearls. Gaekwar Khande Rao, however, had no such considerations.
The Baroda Pearl Carpet went on the auction block recently. It attracted well-deserved attention, another museum piece following the recent double-strand necklace sharing the same name.
I know a couple of you are yawning out there. This is after all, old news. The carpet set a Qatar auction record three weeks ago, selling for $5.5 million. But it was sold to an undisclosed buyer!
So who are the tall poppies capable dishing up $5.5 million for a piece of pearling history in this dire economy? That's a lot of moolah for a secret purchase.
The undisclosed buyer is The Qatar Museum Authority. They purchased the carpet, and it is soon to be a masterpiece for some future “pearl project” in Qatar; the centrepiece, no doubt.
Posts
15 comments:
An unbelievable masterpiece of all pearling . Who would have the patience to make such a carpet. A masterpiece created by grand master crafstmen and women from a lost Era.
Is there a close shot of the carpet?
Click the first link. There is a great shot.
That is quite the write up for the piece- you can tell the author enjoyed researching his article quite a bit; it's definitely worth the read!
Although the sale of the Baroda Pearl Carpet is as you suggested, "Old News", it behooves us all to keep tabs on it's whereabouts and to explore the history of the carpet and it's crafters.
Besides, you posted some really pretty pictures, and it's a slow news week (secession from GA and TX, and Teabagging aside- I'm still laughing at those crazy wingnuts!)for the pearl industry.
As i am about to move to Qatar it is of interest......no doubt it will be going to "The Pearl" residential complex in the West Bay area.....a smaller scale to the Dubai reclaimed island projects
I guess it is only fitting that if it wasn't needed in Mecca, the holiest city in Islam, then it fulfill its kismet anyway and go to the second best place, the holiest four corner luxury region on earth, Doha, Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Slraep
Wanna make odds on 1 & 2?
I read another one of those articles from Dubai that talk about it it as building has slowed done. Many educated foreigners got laid off and their accounts frozen if they owe anything to anybody. The building is slowing down and the workers are slaves, because they give their labor for free- they don't get paid at all, let alone at the prices the recruiters told them.
Dubai, at least, may collapse like teeth that suck on too many fresh dates
Seeing as everything in Dubai is built on sand by angry underpaid/nonpaid migrant workers who do not have any governing body keeping an eagle eye on safety codes, yeah Caitlin, I wanna make odds on 1 & 2!!!
I'm sure a lot of art collector would be interested buying that pearl carpet after all it has provenance, history and made of extremely rare natural pearls of that huge volume! $5.5 million may be undervalued as I find it more rare, valuable and special than the costliest painting in the World "The Mona Lisa" by Leonardo di Carpio este Dan Vinci.
It is also very sad to hear the millions of oysters who are murdered in the process and who knows what? They could probably also paid tribute to the oysters since the Arabs are very romantic/respectful about pearls and who creates them.
And why would someone create such splendor? It is like asking why would someone build Taj Mahal or the pyramids of Egypt? Rich people cannot be rich if there are no poor people. If they paid poor people the same amount of money they are earning then everyone will play God and there will be no slave, no Taj Mahal, no Baroda pearl carpet and necklace or any other costly magnificent monuments.
I have relatives working in the Middle East then and now. They come back still financially not any better but they are not complaining. What choice do they have?
Have you seen the photos of the pearls at various middle-east banks, like the ones Jeremy posted after the Dubai pearl conference? There are huge baskets and piles of them- and they just sit there in the vaults Some of these pearls are hundreds of years old. Most were picked before the 1930's in the 19th century and earlier. While millions of mollusks were killed, the idea of sustainability lost ground towards the end.
I'd love to see more of the pearls in use, perhaps on a full sized rug. The crime is in the hoarding. Talk about dog in the manger!
I haven't been to the middle eat but I have asked my relativbes who have been there about the natural pearl industry there but my relatives are there for work not for touring around the pearl market. Most of them knows that gold is very cheap in Dubai but they don't know anything about the natural pearls. It's a shame that many people neglect to pay attention on important things like that. You cannot feed pearls on swine. Many people are only looking for the things they are interested. If I'm not mistaken only I have been to the local museum in my city. And like I said the museum houses everything that is important, artistic, historical and even some gems. How could people not be interested on such important beauty? Instead they are more interested watching the next High School Musical. Camp Rock, Harry Potter and many other lesser things. No offense but too much is too much. I've been trying to teach my relatives about the gem and jewerlry industry and it seems their attention are on something else and I give up md it even hurt me more when I'm talking to my father and he just nod and not ask any question as if he's not interested at all.
Talking about gems and gemology is my life and it hurts when I am the only one in my family who understand and appreciate what I do but they are still a nice person. I just can't feed them what I like to swallow.
That is very interesting O
Not really.
Yeah Oprah is not really interesting.
The Secret? Do you believe it?
Josh is that you?
Post a Comment