Jewellery, Watches, Silver and Objects of Vertu

A diamond bracelet, circa 1950, the central articulated panel of geometric design with knot motif shoulders, set throughout with brilliant and baguette-cut diamonds, between three rows of similarly-set straps, mounted in platinum, unmarked, case by Searle & Co. Ltd, Jewellers & Silversmiths, 1 Royal Exchange, London, E.C.3 (Late of 79 Lombard Street), principal diamond approximately 1.30 carats, total diamond weight approximately 28.00 carats, length 16cm. £15,000-£20,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Lady Wardington.

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Collection

Lady Wardington, thence by family descent.

Born in Bradford in 1927, the only child of a travelling salesman, Margaret Audrey White was brought up in North London by her mother.

Upon leaving school at 16 she was employed at the Elizabeth Arden cosmetics salon on Bond Street and it was here that she was spotted by Phyllis Digby Morton, editor of Woman and Beauty magazine who invited her to become a model, and hence launching her high profile modelling career. She was to become one of the best known faces of the 1950s.

In 1951 she applied to the BBC for a role as a stand-in television announcer but was turned down for being “too sophisticated and severely beautiful...” and in case she “alarmed timid men from Wigan and country districts”. One commentator put it, “Could you watch Miss White talking about depressions over Iceland and absorb what she was saying?”
The following year she became fashion editor of Housewife magazine and in 1964 married Christopher Henry Beaumont “Bic” Pease, 2nd Lord Wardington, a partner at stockbrokers Hoare Govett and a noted bibliophile. Their family home was Wardington Manor near Banbury, Oxfordshire, where they raised three children.
In the 1980s Lady Wardington realised, as with many other women of that time, that she was not knowledgeable in financial matters. To remedy this she established a financial management course, Capital and Savings Handling (CASH), dealing with savings, pensions and the stock market and aimed at empowering women. The course ran successfully for eight years, until her secretary became ill with cancer. Lady Wardington, wishing to support the hospice that cared for her, set about fundraising by using her extensive connections to produce the series of Super Hints books.
“I just wrote to everyone I knew and asked everyone I met to give me the contents of their address book - the grander the better. I received hints from everyone, from the Queen Mother to Mrs Thatcher - interestingly, the better known the name, the worst the advice.”

Lord Wardington died in 2005, and Lady Wardington, following a fire at Wardington Manor the previous year, continued with the unfinished job of restoring the property. The fire had included the dramatic rescue of the majority of the contents, including Lord Wardington’s library, and his unrivalled collection of important atlases, considered one of the finest private cartographic collections of its time.

The Collection comprises a selection of Lady Wardington’s personal jewellery, much of which was purchased as gifts by her husband - evidenced by the jewellery cases signed by jewellers located in the City of London, close to his offices. This varied Collection presents a snapshot of the jewels worn by one of Society’s most glamorous and beautiful women of the mid 20th century.