Mountbatten Diamond Floral Necklace

Happy Birthday to Lady Pamela Hicks, who turns 92 today! The younger daughter of Lord Mountbatten, first cousin of the Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen’s bridesmaid and lady-in-waiting, who married a influential interior designer, Lady Pamela has had a fascinating life, and after featuring the Hicks Tiara she reportedly still owns and the Mountbatten Tiara and the Mountbatten Art Deco Diamond Necklace, which she doesn’t, today we are taking a look at another illustrious jewel: the Mountbatten Diamond Floral Necklace, which was sold at Auction last month!

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#RoyalJewelsatAuction | A Diamond Floral Necklace on Auction at Sotheby’s ‘The Family Collection of the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma’ Sale in London tomorrow: https://t.co/rbXBX44ieh pic.twitter.com/XfjfAo1a2d
— The Royal Watcher (@saadsalman719) March 23, 2021

The Diamond Necklace from the 1880s was designed as a garland of ivy leaves, set with cushion-shaped and rose-cut diamonds, with screw fittings to allow it to be worn as a tiara. It probably originates from Amalia Mary Maud Cassel, the daughter of financier Sir Ernest Cassel, who was the mother of Edwina, Countess Mountbatten.

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Edwina, Countess Mountbatten wearing the Mountbatten Diamond Floral Necklace https://t.co/EHDjZR3jwH pic.twitter.com/vWqZTEKNnr
— The Royal Watcher (@saadsalman719) April 19, 2021
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The Diamond Floral Necklace was notably worn by Edwina, Countess Mountbatten when the family joined Princess Margaret for the Royal Film Premiere of ‘Captain Horatio Hornblower’ at the Warner Theatre in Leicester Square in London in 1951. It also looks like she wore the necklace with her Pearl and Diamond Tiara for a Banquet for the King and Queen of Sweden, her sister-in-law, at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich in 1955.

Lady Pamela wearing the Mountbatten Diamond Floral Necklace which was Auctioned at Sotheby’s last month https://t.co/EHDjZR3jwH pic.twitter.com/QbmoBckw7C
— The Royal Watcher (@saadsalman719) April 19, 2021

Lady Mountbatten loaned the Diamond Floral Necklace to her younger daughter, Lady Pamela, who wore it for a dance during Princess Elizabeth’s stay in Malta in 1951 (scenes from which were recently featured in ‘My Years With The Queen‘), and she also posed for a portrait wearing the necklace around the same time, wearing the same gown.

After Countess Mountbatten’s death in 1960, the diamond floral necklace was inherited by her elder daughter, the then Lady Brabourne, who seems to be wearing the necklace with the Mountbatten Star Tiara when she joined the Queen and Princess Margaret at the Royal Film Performance of ‘West Side Story’ in 1962.

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