Princess Margaret

Lot number 542, Christies: Property from the Collection of Her Royal Highness The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdown

Dazzling though the diamonds may be, the most striking reminder of Princess Margaret now on display at Christies in Rockefeller Center is a smallish ivory-toned photograph, a copy of the photograph that is lot number 542. The photograph itself carries an estimate of £500-800. (The collection, formally called Property from the Collection of Her Royal Highness The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdown, has highlights on view in New York through June 7; next stop is London, before the auction there on June 13 and 14.)  read more »

Taken by Cecil Beaton in 1965, the photograph shows Margaret, then aged 35, with her arms crossed, directly facing the camera. She has the look of someone who imagines herself the only woman in a world populated by adoring men. And she looks adorable: the spell of power and vulnerability is so utterly mesmerizing that it eclipses everything else in the room; Margaret is terrible and beautiful and proud and, in the arc of her life, already doomed.