The family put it up for auction in January 1959. There, it was purchased for £5,500 by Princess Margaret. Despite having access to the crown jewels, the then 29-year-old Margaret wanted something she could call her own.
“It’s such a modern thing,” Sara Prentice, creative director at the House of Garrard, told Vogue. “We’re finding more and more now that women are purchasing for themselves, but way back in 1959, she chose it for herself. She must have loved it to do that.”
As Lady Sarah Chatto got married in 1994, she could have worn Margaret’s wedding diadem, which is common for royal women. For instance, Princess Anne wore her mother Queen Elizabeth’s wedding tiara at her first wedding in 1973.
However, Sarah decided to wear the Snowdon Floral Tiara. Following her death in 2002, Christie’s held an auction of Princess Margaret’s private collection. The offerings included the Poltimore Tiara, which went for £926,400 to a private buyer. Its whereabouts are unknown.
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