This portrait of Matthew Parker (1504-1575), the Archbishop of Canterbury, by a follower of Hans Holbein the Younger soared to £189,000, more than 75 times its estimate of £2,000-3,000 at Sotheby’s sale of the family collection of
Patricia Mountbatten. Over 1,400 participants from 55 countries drove the total to £5,620,798 over three times the pre-sale estimate with 98% of lots sold. The eldest daughter of Britain’s last Viceroy of India Louis Mountbatten, Patricia Knatchbull was the great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, great niece of Russia’s last Tsarina and first cousin to Prince Philip. A Jaguar 420 commissioned by Lord Mountbatten in 1967 made £126,000 over an too estimate of £20,000; a group of four pieces of mourning jewellery belonging to Queen Victoria made a combined total of £100,800, more than doubling their estimates; a c1905 Lacloche Frères pig-shaped evening bag sold for £109,620 over a top estimate of £3,000; a rare pale celadon jade teapot, Qing Dynasty sold for £176,400, eighteen times its estimate; The Banks Diamond, a late 18th century brooch with a cushion-shaped yellow diamond given to explorer and botanist Joseph Banks by his eccentric sister Sarah around the time of his marriage in 1779 sold for £138,600 and a Fabergé gold-mounted cigarette case and Imperial enamel timepiece bought by the last Tsar and Tsarina as gifts for the parents of Louis Mountbatten, both soared above their estimates, selling for £47,880 and £81,900 respectively.
