A slice of history from Queen Elizabeth's 1947 wedding to Prince Philip is up for grabs. The Queen, who was then known as Princess Elizabeth, wed Prince Philip on 20 November 1947. Since then, a number of items from the nuptials have gone up for auction, including handwritten notes, wedding gift lists and even bridesmaid dresses. However, one of the most unexpected mementoes from the wedding is about to go up for bidding among royal-watchers.
A piece of the Queen and Prince Philip's mammoth 500lb wedding cake has been put up for auction by Hanson's Auctioneers. The slice, which has been reduced to crumbs over the last 77 years, was originally given to Cyril Dickman – a beloved member of the royal family who worked as a steward with the late Queen as well as Princess Diana.
Standing at nine feet tall and weighing 500lb, the royal wedding cake, which was a centrepiece at the celebrations held at Buckingham Palace, had four tiers and was made with 80 oranges, 660 eggs, and more than three gallons of navy rum. The fruit was provided by the Australian Girl Guides, and a slice preserved with rum and brandy from South Africa was sent back to Australia.
A press release about the cake from 1947 reveals: "Each piece of sugar work was made separately and then fitted into its place on the cake." It also added that "the conventional lucky charms are hidden in the bottom tier." Fruit cakes traditionally include seven silver lucky charms: a silver coin, a thimble, a bell, a button, a boot and a horseshoe.
Slices of the cake were also sent to other countries and charities that were at the time part of the Commonwealth, earning it the nickname of "The 10,000-mile wedding cake". This particular preserved slice of cake has been kept in a plain-looking box and states "Presented to Mr C. Dickman by Princess Elizabeth Nov 20th 1947." Most recently, another slice of the Queen's wedding cake sold for £3,000 in July 2025.
It's hardly the first item from the late Queen's wedding to go to auction. Just last year, a bridesmaid's gown fetched £37,800 at auction. The bespoke Norman Hartnell ivory gown was worn by Lady Elizabeth Lambard, who was a childhood friend of the late Queen and served as a bridesmaid for the then-Princess.
As well as this, the official list of wedding gifts, which was printed and bound into a book, also recently sold for £11,000 back in 2021. The main purpose of this book was to meticulously track all of the gifts the young couple received, ranging from the Nizam of Hyderabad's tiara to the 500 tins of pineapple gifted to the couple by the Premier of Queensland.