June 8 - A dazzling pearl and diamond tiara once owned by by a celebrated member of Britain's de Rothschild empire sold at a London auction for £1,161,250 ($1,900,000, 1,305,908 euros).

A Christie's auction house employee poses with a Rosebery Pearl and Diamond Tiara in central London (Photo: AFP/File, Carl Court)

The bejewelled item belonged to Hannah de Rothschild, whom was at one time the richest woman in Britain and whom went on to marry dashing aristocrat and future prime minister the Earl of Rosebery.

Three pieces of jewellery owned by the countess of Rosebery were sold for a combined total of £1,738,500 at Wednesday's "Important Jewel Sale" at Christie's auction house.

The 282 lots raised a grand total of £7,460,725 with a Cartier art deco bracelet alone fetching £1,150,050.

"The Rosebery pearl and diamond tiara, bracelet and brooch were at the heart of Lady Rosebery's vast array of magnificent jewels, which rivaled those of crowned heads of Europe at the time," Keith Penton, Head of Jewels at Christie's London, said.

"They are a rare survival of 19th century English aristocratic splendour, as so much ancestral jewellery has been sold anonymously, remounted or broken down," he added.

The granddaughter of Nathan Mayer Rothschild, founder of NM Rothschild & Sons, the countess became Britain's richest woman when her father, Mayer Amschel, died in 1874.