Countess Mountbatten’s Diamond Wave Brooch

Today marks the 5th Anniversary of the Death of Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma, who passed away on this day in 2017! The first cousin of the late Duke of Edinburgh, who lost her father, mother-in-law, and son in the tragic IRA assassination that made her a Countess in her own right, Lady Mountbatten had a spectacular jewellery collection, some of which was sold last year, and included this sentimental Diamond Wave Brooch.

Mountbatten Pearl Star Tiara | Brabourne Tiara | Diamond Wave BroochThe Family Collection of the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma

This diamond brooch ‘of circular form, with a pierced undulating pattern pavé-set with single-cut diamonds, set to the centre with a brilliant-cut diamond’ was designed by the Earl Mountbatten as gift to his daughter to celebrate an important occasion, in which he cleverly used a repeated wave motif, a reflection of his association with the sea.

In 1986, Countess Mountbatten was pictured wearing the Diamond Wave Brooch at a Dinner in her role as Colonel-in-Chief of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, during which an Official Portrait was taken. Lady Mountbatten succeeded her distant cousin Lady Patricia Ramsay, formerly Princess Patricia of Connaught, for whom the regiment was named, as the Colonel-in-Chief in 1974.

The Diamond Wave Brooch was worn by Countess Mountbatten for the Wedding of her granddaughter, Lady Alexandra Knatchbull, to Thomas Hooper at Romsey Abbey in 2016, almost exactly a year before she passed away.

Lady Mountbatten had stipulated which of her belongings should be sold after her passing, and this Diamond Wave Brooch was among the Jewels sold in the Sotheby’s ‘The Family Collection of the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma’ Sale, fetching 11,970 GBP above the estimate of 4,000 – 6,000 GBP. The brooch was acquired by Wartski but is no longer in their collection.

Mountbatten Pearl Star Tiara | Brabourne Tiara | Diamond Wave BroochThe Family Collection of the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma

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