Hamilton Collection

Princess Diana Tribute Figurines

The purpose of this guide is meant to display the new six piece series of 7 inch figurines issued by the Hamilton Collection to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Princess Diana's passing.

In 2007, the Hamilton Collection, a company owned by Collectibles Today (the same group that brought you the Ashton Drake 'Portraits of Diana' porcelain dolls and the various Bradford Exchange series of plates) announced a new set of figurines, called The Princess of Our Hearts collection, to mark the 10th anniversary of Diana's untimely death.  The set has been advertised as having six pieces and kicked off with a piece entitled, Classic Sophistication.  The ads were illustrated with a cartoon stylized drawing of a giraffe-legged Diana wearing a pale blue Catherine Walker chiffon gown.  Here is a photo of the real thing, which is I find much prettier than the cartoon photo in the ad. (The following photos were used with kind cooperation of eBay seller* butterflykingdom2006.)

Classic Sophistication

The ad described the figurine as --Touched with a kiss of glitter and accessorized with a faux 'pearl' bracelet and drop earrings-- and considering the price of $29.99 (plus tax/s/h,) it doesn't seem to be a bad deal, considering that most of the porcelain figurines by famous names like Coalport and Royal Doulton retail for about ten times that money.

Glamorous Dream            

The second figurine wears the ink blue velvet Victor Edelstein gown Diana wore to the White House in 1985 aka the Travolta gown.  The arm pose is pretty, but makes me worry that this item will become the Diana De Milo in no short order.

Sophisticated Dream 

The third figurine wears an adapted version of the fuchsia Victor Edelstein gown that has been nicknamed the Radiance Gown (after a Franklin Mint vinyl portrait doll of that name.)  The figurine's name is Sophisticated Dream.  Pretty, but that makes three figurines made in this gown in the past 12 months by Royal Worcester, Coalport and now the Hamilton Collection.

Alabaster Enchantment

The fourth figurine is wearing a -very- loosely interpreted version of the Catherine Walker gown in ivory silk with a twisted bodice.

     Royal Chic

Figurine number 5 is quite charming in the extremely easily recognised, stylized and floaty black Christina Stambolian Divorce Dress.

                  Exquisite Charm

The sixth (and I believe was scheduled to be the final figurine in the collection) is dressed in Diana's pearl encrusted "Elvis" gown by Catherine Walker.  Of all the figurines, I find this one to look the most proportional to a real human.

The original literature promised that this collection would have six pieces; I have recently heard from a fellow collector in the Diana grapevine that there may be more on the way.  When the set was first released, I wasn't entirely impressed with them, feeling that the image was a bit too cartoony for my liking.  After looking at them more closely though, especially the Elvis one, I'm finding they are growing on me, despite the scatter of Barbie-fied glitter.

*I have no connection with the seller butterflykingdom2006 other than finding her to be very extremely gracious and generous in allowing me to share her photos with you.  Please give her items a look.  I've tried to insert search links, but eBay keeps blocking me from saving the page even using what they say are permissable links.  Unfortunately, eBay doesn't allow me to post a direct link to her items.