This pearl necklace "the Battenberg Pearls" with diamond and pearl clasp, was left to Princess Victoria, from her mother Grand Duchess Alice of Hesse and by Rhine.
A string of pearls with an diamond and pearl clasp made ca 1870 of forty-seven natural white pearls measuring from 5.2mm to 14.2mm to the old mine-cut diamond clasp with pearl centre, mounted in silver and gold, 48cm long. In the picture above Princess Victoria of Battenberg is wearing the necklace. This pearl set is later known as the Battenberg-Pearls.
Princess Victoria Alberta Elizabeth Mathilde Marie of Hesse and by Rhine 1863 - 1950 later Victoria Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven, was the eldest daughter of Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, and Princess Alice, daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Born in Windsor Castle in the presence of her grandmother, Princess Victoria was raised in Germany and England.
Princess Victoria fell in love to her first cousin, Prince Louis of Battenberg, a member of a morganatic branch of the Hessian royal family. Prince Louis had adopted British nationality and was serving as an officer in the Royal Navy. In the winter of 1882, they met again at Darmstadt, and were engaged the following summer.
Victoria married Prince Louis on 30 April 1884 at Darmstadt. Her father did not approve of the match; in his view Prince Louis—his own first cousin—had little money and would deprive him of his daughter's company, as the couple would naturally live abroad in Britain.
Princess Victoria left the pearl necklace to her son Prince George of Battenberg later George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, who married Countess Nadejda Mikhailovna de Torby, daughter of Russian Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich Romanov and his morganatic wife, Countess Sophie von Merenberg on 15 November 1916 at the Russian Embassy at London.
