The curse of the Tipu’s ring
November 24, 2016 - The Chairman in News & Blog Posts, Chairman's Blog
Seeing the recent entry on social media about the ring which contains hair from Napoleon reminded me of the ring which was sold by Sotheby’s in May 2014.
The ring illustrated here, with the name of Rama, a Hindu God in raised Devanagari script, was 
allegedly taken from the hand of Tipu Sultan, The Tiger of Mysore at Seringapatam during the Mysore War. Colonel Wellesley, as the Duke was then, retrieved it from the corpse of the Tipu. In due course he gave it to Emily Wellesley-Pole his niece who later married Lord Fitzroy Somerset (later Lord Raglan) who was Wellington’s Military Secretary at Waterloo.
Some say it has a curse on it which might account for the drama of the sale of The Raglan Collection which sadly was dispersed by this sale. The ring sold for £115,000 against an estimate of £10-15,000. It is perhaps surprising that a ring bearing the the name of a Hindu God would have been worn by a great Muslim ruler; more likely it was part of the booty after the battle.
But don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story. I went to the preview and actually handled the ring but I resisted the temptation to put it on my finger! That’s perhaps why I am still around.
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