Mistress of Meenakari - SUNITA SHEKHAWAT

The celebrated jewellery designer, renowned for showcasing ancient enamelling techniques and creating splendid new pieces fit for royalty and modern maharajas alike, invites HELLO! to explore her first-of-its-kind museum devoted to the art of meenakari

- PRIYA KUMARI RANA

The Museum of Meenakari Heritage (MOHM) by jewellery designer Sunita Shekhawat, housed in the jewel-box shaped, three-storey pink sandstone Shekhawat Haveli, next to the Rajmahal Palace in the heart of Jaipur, also home to the jewellery maison’s flagship store, is a world first. It’s the only museum of its kind dedicated to the ancient art of meenakari, or enamelling on jewellery, which is the métier that has defined the work of Jodhpur-born Sunita Shekhawat for a quarter of a century.

The meenakari art form traced a circuitous route from Taxila in modern-day Rawalpindi in 2AD to 16th century France, Goa, and the Deccan, Hyderabad, Benares (now Varanasi), and eventually Jaipur. It journeyed via the Mughals, who introduced it from Persia, adding their own flourishes to this art form.

Forming a bridge from a colourful past, with royal, noble and religious patronage from Europe to the Mughals, as shown in the museum, to present-day customer demands from royal families in India and abroad, and notable buyers like Nita Ambani, Sunita and her jewellery karigars (artisans) have elevated this art form with a vast colour palette, and a superlative bespoke experience that begins in the special by-appointment-only floor of her flagship.

A MUSEUM OF MARVELS