Kentish Express Ashford & District
Countess auction fetches £5.6m
Hundreds of prized possessions belonging to a relative of the royal family who lived near Ashford have been sold for more than £5.6million.
The Queen’s third cousin Countess Patricia Mountbatten of Burma, who lived at Newhouse in Mersham, died in 2017, aged 93.
Last week 376 of her belongings, ranging from a Jaguar car to a portrait of the Archbishop of Canterbury, were sold at auction in London.
It was originally estimated the lot would bring in around £1.5million but this was more than tripled after 1,400 bidders from 55 countries took part and raised the grand total to £5,620,798.
The auction was run by Sotheby’s who said there were a number of “runaway successes” including Countess Mountbatten’s historic Jaguar 420 which brought in £120,000.
Other successes included mourning jewellery belonging to Queen Victoria, a Lacloche Frères pig-shaped evening bag, a portrait of former Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker and a pair of gold enamel elephants.
Sotheby’s head of the sale David Macdonald said after the sale last Wednesday: “An auction like today, with its heady mix of history and glamour, does not come up very often, and so it has been a truly special experience to be a part of.
“Over the course of the last two months, it has been wonderful to see Lady Mountbatten’s collection received so rapturously by people from all over the world, culminating in today’s sale where her belongings found brand new homes where they will be treasured for years to come - a fitting tribute to her legacy of courage, grace and, above all, warmth.”
Before the auction, the Countess’s family said: “Our overriding desire when organising our mother’s affairs is to honour her wishes and celebrate the memory of both our mother and our father.
“They had discussed these arrangements with us, and we are simply putting their plans into effect.
“We are of course keeping many things and importantly amongst these are objects which are of sentimental value and much loved.”