A Slice of Royal History Is for Sale as Mountbatten Treasures Go Up for Auction
When it comes to dynasties, you don’t get much more quintessential than the Mountbattens. The family links go right to the heart of the current British royal family (Mountbatten-Windsor is, of course, the surname of the Queen’s descendants) with a bloodline that can be traced back to both Queen Victoria and the last Tsarina of Russia.
So when Sotheby's London auction house opens its sale of property from the collection of the 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma, Patricia Mountbatten, an extraordinary slice of society history will be going under the hammer. Some 350 lots will be auctioned on March 24, with items including jewelry, furniture, paintings, sculpture, and books. Honoring the wishes of the late Countess Mountbatten and her late husband, 7th Baron Brabourne, the auction features items that once belonged in their eighteenth-century Kent home, Newhouse. With lot estimates ranging from £80 to £100,000, the sale is expected to total at least £1.5 million.
“One of the really exciting things about this sale is that it’s so personal,” says the auction’s Head of Sale David Macdonald. “Her life was extraordinary.” The auction house highlights how Patricia had an unconventional upbringing, including weekend parties with King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson at her parents’ estate in Hampshire. She was also evacuated to the U.S. during World War II to stay with Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt III in her Fifth Avenue apartment in New York.
Describing the sale as having a “lovely combination of a heady mix of history and glamour and an iconic figure,” David added that the pieces have “this sense of history, whether that’s implied obviously or whether we don’t know the full story or the full meaning.”
Standout items include a bracelet which was given to Patricia for her 21st birthday and reflected her membership in the 1st Buckingham Palace Company of Girl Guides, which was set up in 1937 to allow the 11-year-old Princess Elizabeth to become a Girl Guide. (The Girl Guides are somewhat akin to the Girl Scouts in the U.S.)
“She was the leader of the pack,” Macdonald says of Patricia Mountbatten. “Her father had a gold bracelet made for her with all the badges that she won in enamel on it, which is really lovely.” Patricia’s father Louis, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, was a confidant to both Prince Philip and Prince Charles; the Queen, then Princess Elizabeth, and her sister Princess Margaret were both bridesmaids at Patricia’s 1946 wedding in Romsey Abbey, Hampshire.
Other notable items for sale include a jewel known as The Banks Diamond, which dates back to the late 18th century, and has a value estimated at £40,000 - £60,000. The brooch incorporates a central cushion-shaped yellow diamond, named for the piece's previous owner, explorer and botanist Sir Joseph Banks. It was passed down through Countess Mountbatten’s husband’s family, but the sale contains a number of jewels worn by Patricia’s mother, Edwina Mountbatten, who was known for her sophistication and glamour.
“Her mother was very glamorous and would be photographed wearing great jewels,” says Macdonald. “Edwina would travel with her jewel cases and she would say that she never knew where she might have to attend something that was a big state occasion.” One set, described as "Tutti Frutti" style jewels includes a necklace, earrings, dress clips and a ring of carved rubies, emeralds and sapphires expected to fetch between £40,000 to £60,000.
Also for sale is a pair of jeweled gold and enamel elephants which were a 20th wedding anniversary gift to Lord Mountbatten and Edwina, a pig-shaped gold mesh purse and a bracelet containing a painting of an infant Prince Albert.
Further information on the March 24 auction can be found at sothebys.com.
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