A group of six dresses worn by Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret when they were children will be offered at vintage fashion specialist Kerry Taylor Auctions later this month.
Extracted from Antiques Trade Gazette | ATG Reporter
Offered as four separate lots, they have a combined estimate of £16,000-25,000 at the sale in Bermondsey on June 17.
One of the lots is a pair of Smith & Co Liberty printed silk dresses worn by two princesses in 1935. Both come with matching silk knickers.
The two dresses rank as some of the most photographed worn by the princesses including when they attended a pantomime performance accompanied by the Duke and Duchess of York at the Lyceum theatre in February 1935. The lot is estimated at £10,000-15,000.
All six dresses at auction were previously in the possession of Clara Knight, the Royal nanny from 1926. Each lot will be sold with a copy of a letter from Sandringham House acknowledging the vendor’s possession of the clothes on behalf of Her Majesty. The two princesses nicknamed her ‘Allah’ because as infants they found ‘Clara’ too difficult to say.
After the clothes passed to Knight’s family, they were loaned to the Bexhill Museum for many years before being sold at a nearby auction house in 2017. The buyer at the auction has now consigned them to Kerry Taylor.
The other lots are a pink rayon party dress from c.1935 worn by Princess Elizabeth (estimate: £1500-2500); a Smith & Co primrose silk dress from 1935 worn by Princess Margaret (estimate: £1500-2500) and a balloon printed cotton dress, worn by Princess Elizabeth or Margaret from c.1937 (£3000-5000).