English dancer Stella Mudge was dancing in the legendary Paris troupe, the Folies Bergère, when she met her prince charming: a certain Paramjit Singh, from faraway India, a scion of the royal family from the state of Kapurthala, in the Punjab.
Kapurthala was already famous for its architectural monuments and beautiful gardens. Once called the Paris of Punjab, it was not unusual for the heir apparent of Kapurthala—the Tika Raja to be in Paris.
Tika Raja Paramjit Singh was already married to a princess from the royal family of Jubbal, Brinda Devi, and they were the toast of Paris, the ‘jewels in the crown’ of French society, mingling with deposed European crowned heads, including King Alphonso of Spain and Queen Marie of Rumania.
However, Tika Raja obviously couldn’t resist to the charm of the glamorous English beauty, Stella Mudge. And thus began an intense relationship that lasted some 15 years before the Tika Raja (eventually the Maharani when her husband became the Maharaja in 1949) decided to marry Stella in 1937, making her his third wife, and as a wedding gift, gifting Narinder Kaur neé Stella Mudge, not just any old car, but one of the most astoundingly beautiful cars on sale then, in 1937: this Talbot-Lago T150-C-SS sports coupe. (now in the Nethercutt collection)
Sometime in 1939 Stella de Kapurthala (as she was often called) decided to unload her wedding gift. Luigi Chinetti, the famous Italian American racer and importer of exotic cars, arranged to have the Talbot-Lago sold to a wealthy Southern Californian playboy called Tommy Lee.
1949 Bentley MkVI chassis built for the Maharaja of Mysore, bodied by Hooper to its elegant 8111 saloon design
The maharajas of Mysore were keen motorists and had a huge fleet of luxury cars which included several Rolls-Royces, the last of the Wodeyar dynasty, which ruled Mysore in south-west India from 1399 to the country's unification in 1947, was one of the world's wealthiest men, being worth the equivalent of £35billion at his death in 1940
From the collection of the Maharaja Gaj Singh Ji of Jodhpur. Barker bodied Torpedo Tourer
A one-off 1934 Phantom II 40/50 HP Continental ‘All-Weather Convertible’, custom made for the then Maharaja of Rajkot, Thakore Sahib Dharmendrasinhji Lakhajiraj, in 1934
The car features saffron-colored paintwork symbolizing the purity of Hinduism. The fenders and hood are a brilliant polished aluminum to reflect the intense Indian heat. Etched into each door, the hood, and the glass of the side windows is the crest of Rajkot
1912 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost ‘Throne’ car of the Nizam of Hyderabad
1919 Daimler 45 HP of Sir Seth Hukumchand Family, with the trim pieces gold plated, and the paint was a special gold color
The gold plated bell as a radiator mascot has its own story. It was supposed to be unholy to horn at the holy cow! Hence gold bell was put in place as a radiator mascot with the string attached and pulled by the driver should the path of the car be blocked by a holy cow
The Maharaja Sir Manmathanath Roy Choudhary of Santosh, next to his Chenard et Walcker.
"However, before its completion, Mehboob Ali Khan passed away in 1911. It was delivered in 1912 to the VII Nizam, who used it only for ceremonial occasions. It was maintained by the Hyderabad State Railway at its garage. During his career of 26 years in Hyderabad, the Nizam travelled in the car sparingly, which is why it had run only 356 miles," Kishan Rao said.
Now this is what I call some interesting automotive history. Thanks. Rolls Royce garage trucks? Hmmm!
ReplyDeleteDoh! I forgot to add that link because I posted that extensively in 2013 https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2013/04/how-to-teach-rolls-royce-lesson-and.html
DeleteI guess I must have posted that before you discovered my blog. I have to say, with a tiny bit of pride, there is a lot of good stuff in the archives, and I'm not overstating that I think that what I used to post was a LOT better than what I post now. Of course, I can only remember the really good stuff, and not the vast amount of mediocre stuff that must be in there... but if you haven't given the "best of" a look? You are really missing the prime material carefully selected. Or just go hit the Facebook version of Justacarguy, as I posted all of the Best Of there, going back all the way to 2006, up to about 2016, so that if I ever got some corporate type to look over what I've done prior to getting an interview for a job as a journalist doing this very same bloggy thing, they could look at the stuff that is the most impressive
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