A slice of wedding cake from the wedding of the future Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip – exactly 77 years ago – has sold at auction for more than four times its expected value.
After being found under the bed in a trunk, the piece of fruit cake fetched more than $2,800 after it was estimated to have made around $650, the BBC reports. The original cake was served to 2,000 guests at the wedding of the then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip on November 20, 1947, a gift from Marion Polson, housekeeper at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, Scotland from 1931 to 1969.
A bidder from China won a “very, very rare” piece of cake by buying it over the phone.
“It’s a real little find, a little time capsule of a magnificent cake,” said James Grinter of auction house Reeman Dansie.
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s wedding: all the details
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s four-tiered wedding cake.
Getty Images
After buying the couple a “lovely” dessert service, Polson received a piece of cake as a thank you. She kept it until her death in the 1980s, when it was found under the bed with some other things. When found, the cake was still in its original presentation box and came with a letter from Princess Elizabeth herself, dated November 1947, the same month as her wedding day.
“My husband and I are deeply touched to know that you have given us such a wonderful wedding gift,” the future queen wrote. (She would take the throne on February 6, 1952, less than five years later.)
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Elizabeth and Philip on their wedding day, November 20, 1947. Getty Images / Hulton Archive
“We are both enchanted by the dessert service,” continued the former Princess Elizabeth. “The variety of flowers and the beautiful colors will, I know, arouse the admiration of all who see it.”
The couple’s cake was nine feet tall and weighed a whopping 500 pounds.
Polson’s family contacted Reeman Dansie earlier this year, and Grinter said Polson’s slice of the cake was the first piece ever sold “in its entirety.”
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Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh wave to the crowd from the balcony of Buckingham Palace in London shortly after their wedding at Westminster Abbey on November 20, 1947. Keystone/Getty The most glamorous royal wedding cakes in history
“This one actually has its own original content that is very, very rare,” he said. “Mind you, it was produced in a time of rationing… They had the most magnificent cake made for them. I’ve seen photos of it — it would fill half the room, it was absolutely huge.”
Elizabeth and Philip’s cake consisted of four tiers and was soaked in alcohol, the BBC reported.
Grinter did admit that the cake was no longer in the best condition, saying: “I don’t think I’d particularly want to eat it, I have to admit.”
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Source: HIS Education