Here's How You Can Own a Piece of the Mountbatten Family's Ravishing Regal History
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After being thrust back into the limelight via Netflix's award-winning series, The Crown, Lord (Louis) Mountbatten has proven to be a fascinating study for those who weren't aware of his prominence prior to watching the show. "Uncle Dickie," as he was affectionately nicknamed by the British royal family, left behind a lineage and legacy that may seem a work of fiction upon his tragic death in 1979, but is in fact every bit real.
Louis Mountbatten was born with royal blood from several major European countries as the great-grandson of Queen Victoria and first cousin of the legendary Romanov children (his father was a first cousin to Tsar Nicolas and his mother was the sister of Nicolas' wife, Tsarina Alexandra). It was believed that Mountbatten became smitten with Maria Romanov after meeting at family event as children, but they never saw each other again before her family was executed.
The Crown has also led to a renewed interest in Mountbatten's sister, Princess Alice of Battenberg, the mother of Prince Phillip. Phillip lived with the Mountbattens for several years following his mother's institutionalization, and Lord Mountbatten famously served as a mentor to Phillip's son, Prince Charles, with his legacy continuing on as the namesake of Prince William and Duchess Kate's third child.
Lord Mountbatten's Rumor-Ridden Marriage and Family Life
Mountbatten married English heiress, socialite, and philanthropist Edwina Ashley in 1922, who was notorious for her free-spirited ways and incredible fortune. Edwina's grandfather was Sir Ernest Cassel, private financier and friend to the soon-to-be King Edward VII, and he eventually became one of the most powerful and wealthy men in all of Europe. He outlived his daughter, Amalia, Edwina's mother, and thus, the vast majority of his fortune went to a 21-year-old Edwina. Louis and Edwina wed two years after meeting in London at St. Margaret's, Westminster, drawing crowds of more than 8,000 people. The event was dubbed the "wedding of the year."
The pair became the last Viceroy and Vicereine of India in the final months of the British rule over the region. They then became styled as the Viscount and Viscountess of Burma, in 1946, and later the Count and Countess of Burma, which is when Edwina's infamous affair with the new Prime Minister of India, Jawaharal Nehru, began. While the pair was famous for having an unorthodox marriage in which each spent more time with various lovers instead of each other, they did give birth to two daughters, Patricia and Pamela.
Design enthusiasts may know the younger daughter, Pamela, as the wife of the legendary David Hicks and mother of two of today's sparkling tastemakers: Ashley and India Hicks. Patricia, on the other hand, inherited the title of Countess of Mountbatten upon her father's tragic death in a bombing by the Irish Republican Army in 1979 (chronicled at the beginning of season four of The Crown) on their family boat while they were on holiday. She, her husband, and one of her twin sons survived the attack, while her son, Nicholas, died along with her father.
Patricia received more than 100 facial stitches in the aftermath of the assassination, which she once jokingly referred to as her "I.R.A. face lift." As the great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria, third cousins to Queen Elizabeth II, and first cousins to Prince Phillip, the Mountbatten sisters lived a life full of royal prestige, pleasure, and pains. Pamela chronicles the strange and alluring life of the family in a 2013 memoir, titled, "Daughter of Empire: Life as a Mountbatten," an incredibly honest retelling of her childhood, full of juicy insights and glamorous moments.
Not long after being sent to live with Grace Vanderbilt at her enviable Fifth Avenue home at the onset of WWII in 1940, the sisters came back a year later to a new Britain and assimilated as best they could. Patricia enlisted in the Royal Naval Service, where she met and fell in love with acclaimed filmmaker John Knatchbull, 7th Lord Brabourne, who was most famous for bringing Agatha Christie's biggest novels to the big screen. Then-Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret served as the bridesmaids at their wedding and Prince Phillip as an usher. John and Patricia are a unique pair in that they became one of very few married couples who each held a peerage in their own right, and also were in possession of two unparalleled inheritances, featuring pieces from the Qing Dynasty to jewels gifted by Queen Victoria and pieces from the set of Knatchbull's movies.
How to Score a Piece (or Two) From the Covetable Mountbatten and Knatchbull Collection
On March 24, more than 350 lots from the couple's collection at their 18th-century manor, Newhouse, will be up for auction with Sotheby's. Titled, "The Family Collection of the Late Countess Mountbatten of Burma," the auction features items reflective of the family's British and Russian royal heritage, love of ancient and modern history, and reputation as 20th-century tastemakers. Several notable highlights include a silver, enamel and hardstone Fabergé timepiece from Imperial Russia, the historic Banks Diamond that commemorates iconic explorer Sir Joseph Banks, and a rare Anglo-Indian inlaid bureau mounted on a mahogany stand supplied by Thomas Chippendale to Sir Edward Knatchbull in the late 18th century.
This collection spans the categories of jewelry, furniture, paintings, sculpture, Chinese artworks, silver, ceramics, and objets d'art, requiring the involvement of 20 departments from Sotheby's. Other exciting features include a series of portraits of Jane Austen's beloved niece and nephew, Art Deco "Tutti Frutti" style jewels beloved by Edwina, and a blend of museum-quality and whimsical pieces for the home.
Visit the auction's homepage to start your bidding now, as virtual bidding has opened to the public for those who cannot attend the London auction on March 24. You can also take an inside look at Newhouse, the couple's beautiful country home, that once held this spectacular assortment of treasures.
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