Jewellery and Watches

Formerly the Property of Her Royal Highness The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon


A Victorian gold demi-parure, circa 1840,

comprising a hinged bangle, brooch and ear pendants, of hollow form, designed as textured entwined knots suspending twin tassel pendant drops, contained in fitted case, ear pendants adapted with later screw back fittings, bangle inner diameter 5.7cm, brooch width 4.6cm, ear pendants length 4cm.






Accompanied by the Certificate of Provenance from Kensington Palace, dated 13 June 2006, in original embossed brown leather folder. £4,000-£6,000

Christie’s, Property from the Collection of Her Royal Highness, The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, Sale 13 June 2006, Lot 86.

Princess Margaret was photographed on numerous occasions wearing individual pieces from this early Victorian gold suite as well as wearing the whole set together. One photograph with Mick Jagger taken after a Rolling Stones concert in the 1960s shows the Princess wearing the brooch to the centre of her dress. Unlike her sister, the late Queen Elizabeth II, who favoured wearing brooches on the traditional left, Princess Margaret followed her grandmother’s style and regularly wore them to the centre front of her neckline. In all photographs depicting the Princess wearing this suite, such as in the series of Snowdon family portraits from 1974, Princess Margaret wears the brooch to the centre of her outfit. In a slightly later and better known portrait taken by the photographer Norman Parkinson in 1978, Princess Margaret wears the tassel earrings from this suite together with the diamond and blue enamel bracelet she had received for her 21st birthday.