Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah, Aga Khan III, was born in 1877 in Karachi and succeeded his father as Imam of the Nizari Ismaili Muslims at the age of seven. He went on to hold that position for seventy-two years until his death in 1957, becoming one of the most prominent Muslim figures of the twentieth century and a central figure in international political and social life.
His world overlapped substantially with the world of the Cartier brothers. He moved regularly between London, Paris, Cannes, and Geneva, attending the same race meetings, clubs, and social gatherings as Pierre Cartier and Jacques Cartier. He was known as an enthusiastic sportsman, particularly in horse racing, and his political presence extended to the League of Nations. He was knighted by the British Crown and held a position of extraordinary influence across the Muslim world.
Cartier Connection
The Aga Khan moved in the same social circles as Pierre Cartier and Jacques Cartier. Among the documented commissions is a Cartier tiara made in 1934 for his second wife, Princess Andrée (née Andrée Joséphine Carron), whom he married that year.
The connection continued through the next generation. Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, the Aga Khan's younger son, assembled over nearly thirty years one of the finest private collections of Art Deco precious objects, many of them by Cartier. The Sadruddin collection includes more than a dozen Cartier vanity cases, cigarette cases, and compacts, among them pieces decorated with Chinese, Japanese, and Persian-inspired motifs. Prince Sadruddin gave these pieces to his wife, Princess Catherine, to mark occasions across their life together. The collection was exhibited at L'École, School of Jewelry Arts, and catalogued in Precious Art Deco Objects (2023).
The Weighing Ceremonies
The Aga Khan is associated in popular memory with the ceremonial events in which he was literally weighed against precious materials by his followers as a measure of his jubilee. At his Golden Jubilee in 1936, he was weighed against gold; at his Diamond Jubilee in 1946, he was weighed against diamonds. The materials collected for each ceremony represented an enormous quantity of wealth. These internationally reported occasions reflected the extraordinary scale of the wealth that circulated in the world in which Cartier's wealthiest clients moved.
The Aga Khan Emerald
The most documented single Cartier piece associated with the family is a brooch commissioned by Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan in 1960, three years after his father's death. The brooch features a 37-carat square-shaped Colombian emerald surrounded by twenty marquise-shaped diamonds, set in platinum and 18-carat yellow gold. Prince Sadruddin commissioned it from Cartier as a gift for his first wife, Nina Dyer.
The brooch was first sold at Christie's inaugural Geneva Magnificent Jewels sale in May 1969 to Van Cleef & Arpels, and subsequently passed to Harry Winston. It returned to Christie's Geneva on 12 November 2024, where it sold for CHF 7,765,000 ($8.8 million), setting a record for the most expensive emerald sold at auction.
Legacy
The Aga Khan III died in 1957 and was succeeded by his grandson.
Sources
- Francesca Cartier Brickell, The Cartiers (Ballantine Books, 2019), ch. 2 (“Louis, 1898–1919”) and ch. 10 (“Cousins in Austerity, 1945–1956”)
- Christie's Geneva, “The Aga Khan Emerald”, 12 November 2024 (lot details: 37.00ct Colombian emerald, Cartier brooch, 1960; sold CHF 7,765,000)
- National Jeweler, “Aga Khan Emerald Sells for $8.8M, Sets Record”, November 2024
- Hans Nadelhoffer, Cartier: Jewelers Extraordinary (Thames and Hudson, 1984; revised 2007), pp. 26, 74 et al.
- Jeweled Splendours of the Art Deco Era: The Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga Khan Collection
- Precious Art Deco Objects: The Extraordinary Collection of Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga Khan, L'École, School of Jewelry Arts (2023)
- Wikipedia: Aga Khan III
