AGO - Maharaja Exhibit

The Art Gallery of Ontario is hoping that their new exhibit Maharajah: The Splendour of India's Royal Courts will be the next blockbuster to follow the great success of their King Tut exhibit from last year. An article I read in the Globe and Mail indicated that the AGO needed big showstoppers in order to make a profit. I had my doubts about how successful they would be when I read this, since it will be difficult to find continuously find shows with as much universal appeal as Tut seemed to generate. My visit to the AGO on December 30, which coincidentally was the exact same date the previous year that I went to see King Tut, seemed to prove that fact. Last year, timed tickets were required for Tut and when we arrived, there were lineups and huge crowds waiting to get in. Despite having the timed tickets, it was so packed that we had a hard time getting near the artifacts. This year for Maharajah, the lack of lineups and crowds were sadly and immediately apparent. Even the offer of allowing free entry to any visitor 25 and under (an attempt to introduce younger audiences to the AGO?) has not seemed to help.

This is really too bad since the Maharajah exhibit includes some spectacular pieces that are really worth seeing. The highlight is the beautiful saffron-coloured Rolls Royce nicknamed "The Star of India" which originally belonged to a Maharaja of Rajkot in 1934. Since then it has changed hands several times and has been ridden in by the British royalty. Recently it has been repurchased by the original Maharaja family and will be returning home to India after the exhibit.

Also of note is a stunning Fort Coach Company 1915 silver carriage with painted engravings of birds and flowers, carvings of bull dogs and ducks, and the Maharaja's coat of arms.

My personal favourites were the Art Deco furniture including a lovely library chair that had built in lights and ashtray on the arm, and a magnificent desk with built in lamp, desktop pen set, attached metal waste basket. Rich liked the Reverso watches where the watch-face could be flipped around so that cricket players could protect them from being scratched while playing their sport... we wondered why they just didn't take off the watches?