Maharaja Sir Duleep Singh - A pair of George III sterling silver dinner plates, London 1807 by Robert Garrard I (reg. 11th Aug 1802)

Of shaped circular form with a moulded and gadrooned rim. Each later engraved with a crest of a lion passant, the dexter forepaw supporting a shield charged with a Latin cross, all below an astral crown. Each fully marked to the reverse. (2)

Length – 24.6 cm / 9.7 inches

Weight – 1044 grams / 33.57 ozt

The crest is for Maharaja Sir Duleep Singh (1838-1893)

Born Dulip Singh was the 5^th and last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire. He was Maharaja Ranjit Singh's (1780-1839) youngest son, the only child of Maharani Jind Kaur (c.1817-1863).

After the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1839, Duleep Singh lived quietly with his mother, Jammu ruled by Gulab Singh (1792-1857), under the protection of the Vizier, Raja Dhian Singh (1796-1843). He and his mother were recalled to Lahore in 1843 after the assassinations of Maharaja Sher Singh (1807-1843) and Dhian Singh, and on 16 September, at the age of five, Duleep Singh was proclaimed Maharaja of the Sikh Empire, with Maharani Jind Kaur as Regent.

On 13^th December 1845 the British East India Company declared war on the Sikhs and, after winning the First Anglo-Sikh War, retained the Maharaja as nominal ruler, but replaced the Maharani by a Council of Regency and later imprisoned and exiled her. Over thirteen years passed before Duleep Singh was permitted to see his mother again.

In May 1854 he was sent into exile in Britain.

Duleep Singh arrived in England in late 1854 and was introduced to the British court. Queen Victoria showered affection upon the turbaned Maharaja, as did the Prince Consort. Duleep Singh was initially lodged at Claridge's Hotel in London before the East India Company took over a house in Wimbledon and then eventually another house in Roehampton which became his home for three years. He was also invited by the Queen to stay with the Royal Family at Osborne.

On his return from Continental Europe in 1855 he was given an annual pension of £25,000 a year (approximately £2,500,000 in today's value) provided he "remain obedient to the British Government," and was officially under ward of Sir John Spencer Login and Lady Login, who leased Castle Menzies in Perthshire, Scotland, for him.

Maharaja Duleep Singh, as he became in June 1861, bought through the India Office a 17,000 acres country estate at Elveden on the border between Norfolk and Suffolk, close to Thetford, in 1863. The house was remodelled into a quasi-oriental palace where he lived the life of a British aristocrat. Maharaja Duleep Singh was accused of running up large expenses and the estate was sold after his death to pay his debts.

Maharaja Duleep Singh died in Paris in 1893 at the age of 55, having seen India after the age of fifteen during only two brief, tightly controlled visits in 1860, to bring his mother to England, and in 1863 to cremate his mother's body.

The Maharaja and his family used a coat of arms which was drawn up by Prince Albert, despite not being registered at the College of Arms. The motto "Prodesse quam conspicii" "to do good rather than be conspicuous". In June 1861 he was one of the first 25 Knights in the Order of the Star of India.

Little silver bearing the Maharaja’s crest is recorded, where they were presumably sold as part of the sale of Elveden after his death when the estate was purchased by Edward, later 1st Earl of Iveagh (1847-1927). For a set of six dessert spoons of 1854/74 bearing this crest please see the following lot.

A cased travelling vanity table set, London 1863 by Thomas Whitehouse, belonging to the wife of Maharaja Duleep Singh, Maharani Bamba Duleep Singh née Müller (1848-1887) was sold Christie’s London, 4 Oct 2012, lot 220 (£13,750 incl. prem), sold Elveden Hall, Christie's House Sale, 24 May 1984, lot 2,825.

A hawking bell from his time at Mulgrave castle where he lived 1858-1862 was sold Sotheby’s Paris, 13 April 2022, lot 85 (€8,190 incl. prem).