Mountbatten Tiara

We were sad to hear of the passing of the fascinating Lady Pamela Hicks yesterday at the age of 97! The younger daughter of Lord Mountbatten was the first cousin of the Duke of Edinburgh and served as the late Queen’s bridesmaid and lady-in-waiting before marrying an influential interior designer. Among several spectacular heirlooms, Lady Pamela inherited the iconic Chaumet Mountbatten Tiara!

Made by Chaumet around 1910, the Mountbatten Tiara features diamond scroll motifs topped with diamond trefoils, and is thought to have been acquired by the then Lady Louis Mountbatten, who was a wealthy Heiress, in the 1930s.

In 1937, the Chaumet Tiara was worn by Lady Louis at the Coronation of her husband’s cousin, King George VI, as well as a Ball held by the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland a few days later, in addition to portraits taken by the legendary Madame Yvonne, when the Tiara was paired with her Art Deco Diamond Necklace and Emerald Necklace.

A few years later, Lady Mountbatten wore the Tiara in a series of official portraits taken to mark her husband’s appointment as the last Viceroy of India, after which he was made Earl Mountbatten of Burma. The Tiara was frequently worn in India, rotated with her Pearl and Diamond Tiara, because “she could not be seen twice in the same one.”

Lady Mountbatten wore her Chaumet Tiara at the Coronation of her niece-in-law, Queen Elizabeth II, in 195 3, and continued to wear it for gala events through the 1950s. Lady Mountbatten died soon after her younger daughter’s wedding in 1960, and the Tiara was inherited by Lady Pamela.

While she was no longer the Queen’s Lady-in-Waiting, Lady Pamela and her husband, influential interior designer David Hicks, had a very busy social life in the 1960s and 1970s, and she wore the Mountbatten Tiara for a plethora of events and portraits, once even taking it to Sweden under a hat to wear at a Ball at the Royal Palace in Stockholm, where her aunt was the Queen of Sweden.

Lady Pamela also frequently paired the Mountbatten Tiara with her mother’s Art Deco Diamond Necklace and her Aquamarine Suite over the years.

In 2002, Lady Pamela put the Chaumet Mountbatten Tiara on auction at Sotheby’s and said:

We’re not pop stars, so we need the money. I am sad to have to sell it as it belonged to my mother and it’s very precious to me. It has, however, come to the point where I have to sell something.”

The Tiara was sold for £149,650, well above the estimate of £100,000-150,000 and was purchased by a private collector, and has been displayed on a few rare occasions.