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Alexandra Anastasia Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn was the eldest daughter of Lt.-Col. Harold Phillips and his wife Georgina Wernher. Her maternal grandmother was Countess Anastasia de Torby, otherwise known as Lady Zia Werner, the daughter of Grand Duke Mikhailovich of Russia and Countess Sophie Merenberg, Countess de Torby.
‘Sacha’ as she was known to family and friends, was a keen philanthropist and founder of the Pushkin prize and the Pushkin Trust, named after her ancestor, the famous Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, who was the grandfather of Countess de Torby.

The threes natural pearl necklaces, offered here descended through the family from the Duchess of Abercorn’s great grandmother Alice Sedgwick Mankiewicz (1862-1945) who married Julius Charles Werner (1850-1912) in June1888. After displaying great business acumen buying and exporting diamonds from the Kimberley mines in South Africa, Werner eventually acquired a controlling interest in De Beers Consolidated Mines and was created a baronet in 1905. He accumulated great wealth and an important art collection which was kept at his London home in Piccadilly and at his country house Luton Hoo. After his death, his widow Alice, Lady Wernher, remarried on 25th September 1919 to Henry Lopes, 2nd Baron Ludlow and became known as Lady Ludlow.