The Mountbatten Tiara is a piece, not very many people know about. In saying that, we wanted to add this headpiece to our collection of Tiara Watch posts. There’s not much information to go off, so we’re using an article by Tatler to fill in the blanks.
So, the Mountbatten Tiara was an Art Deco piece created in 1928 for Baroness Marie Dow. The tiara was used as a symbol of her status as the wife of the Belgian Ambassador. By the time 1934 rolled around, the Baroness then decided to change the style, so she sent it to Chaumet for modification. Tatler describe the design as having trefoil motifs and swirling diamond scrolls and circles that interconnected and rose into a point. She sold it to Cartier.
The tiara was then named the Mountbatten Tiara after it was bought by Edwina, Countess Mountbatten, sometime in 1937. Edwina was married to Lord Louis Mountbatten and was an heiress to her own fortune.
Lord Mountbatten was Louis Mountbatten, the favoured uncle of the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Louis Mountbatten’s mother was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria.
The Mountbatten Tiara Was Worn On Special Occasions
Edwina Mountbatten would wear the Mountbatten Tiara a lot when she was in India alongside her husband. She would also wear it during the coronations of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II.
After Lord Mountbatten’s assassination in 1979, the Mountbatten Tiara was inherited by his youngest daughter, Lady Pamela Hicks, who would wear it on multiple occasions but had to unfortunately sell it via an auction by Sothsby’s in 2002. It was last seen on display in 2019 in Monaco, where it was on loan from the people who bought it.
