LOT-G153. For your consideration is an exceedingly rare and historically important c.1954 antique Royal Family Christmas Card hand-signed by Countess Edwina Mountbatten of Burma. Royal signature is manuscript in blue ink. Condition is original. Royalty Family Christmas Card measures approximately 5.5" x 6.0". Unfolded 12.0". Featuring original decorative silk or satin ribbon. Royal standard / cost of arms gold leaf embossed seal. Guaranteed authentic.

Edwina Cynthia Annette Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, CI, GBE, DCVO (née Ashley; 28 November 1901 – 21 February 1960), was an English heiress, socialite, relief worker and the last vicereine of India as the wife of Rear Admiral The 1st Viscount Mountbatten of Burma.

Edwina Mountbatten was the last vicereine of India, serving during the final months of the British Raj and the first months of the post-Partition period (February 1947 to June 1948) when Louis Mountbatten was the last viceroy of India and then, after the partition of India and Pakistan in June 1947, the governor-general of India, but not of the Dominion of Pakistan. It was at this time that a serious relationship between Edwina Mountbatten and Nehru began. She and Nehru, the new prime minister of India, became romantic with each other. Whether the romance was ever consummated is not known; however, their mutual fondness was evident and caused widespread speculation. In 2012, Edwina's daughter, Lady Pamela Hicks, accepted that there was a romance between her mother and Jawaharlal Nehru, which she mentioned in the book Daughter of Empire: Life As A Mountbatten. British historian Philip Ziegler, with access to the private letters and diaries, concludes the relationship:

was to endure until Edwina Mountbatten's death: intensely loving, romantic, trusting, generous, idealistic, even spiritual. If there was any physical element it can only have been of minor importance to either party. Mountbatten's reaction was one of pleasure....He liked and admired Nehru, it was useful to him that the Prime Minister should find such attractions in the Governor-General's home, it was agreeable to find Edwina almost permanently in good temper: the advantages of the alliance were obvious.