NOONANS SELL THE JEWELLERY COLLECTION OF THE LATE LADY WARDINGTON FOR A HAMMER PRICE OF £121,240

The Collection of the late Lady Wardington (1927-2014) fetched a total hammer price of £121,240 in an auction of Jewellery, Watches, Silver and Objects of Vertu at Noonans Mayfair (16 Bolton Street) on Tuesday, March 10, 2026. The 30 pieces were being sold by her direct descendants.

The highest price of the Collection was paid for a stylish mid 20th century gold and diamond-set evening purse in bi-colour ossierwork which fetched a hammer price of £28,000 against an estimate of £15,000-20,000 [lot 454] while a second similar gold evening purse fetched a hammer price of £22,000 against an estimate of £10,000-15,000 [lot 453].

One of the most striking pieces in the Collection was a gem-set cluster brooch / pendant. The pear-shaped cluster was set with various gemstones including cushion and hexagonal-cut blue and yellow Sri Lankan sapphires, and further emeralds, aquamarines and rubies, with old brilliant-cut diamond highlights between. Estimated to fetch £4,000-6,000, it realised a hammer price of £15,000 and was purchased by a London buyer [lot 256]. A striking diamond and platinum bracelet, dating from circa 1950, also fetched a hammer price of £15,000 [lot 251].

As Frances Noble, Head of Jewellery Department at Noonans added: “It has been our privilege to offer for sale the Collection of Lady Wardington, and we were delighted to have achieved such strong results for her family.”

Margaret Audrey White was born in Bradford in 1927, the only child of a travelling salesman, and 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.

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?”

After dazzling the BBC, but failing to win its executives over, the following year she became fashion editor of Housewife magazine. In 1964 Margaret 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. As Lady Wardington, she was to champion practical measures to help women gain financial independence.