Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s Wedding Cake Slice Sold for $2K

Seven decades after Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip’s wedding day — November 20, 1947 — a piece of their celebratory cake has been sold.

The cake slice was recently sold at auction for more than £2,200 (roughly $2,837) to a buyer located in China, according to the BBC. The fruit cake had been found in a suitcase underneath a bed 77 years after the late queen’s wedding day.

Elizabeth had apparently gifted the slice to Marion Polson, who worked as a housekeeper at Edinburgh’s Palace of Holyroodhouse from 1931 to 1969. It was found, still in its original suitcase by Polson’s family after her death in the 1980s.

“It’s a real little find, a little time capsule of glorious cake,” auctioneer James Grinter told the BBC.

Related: Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s Seven-Decade Love Story

It’s been seven decades since Prince Philip wrote to Queen Elizabeth II to say he had “fallen in love completely and unreservedly” with her, and the couple stayed together until the Duke of Edinburgh’s death in April 2021 — through marriage, childbirths, triumphs and trials. An 8-year-old Elizabeth met Philip in 1934 while attending a […]

Along with the cake, Elizabeth, then age 21, sent a personal letter to Polson for sending along a “delightful wedding present.”

“My husband and I are deeply touched to know that you shared in giving us such a delightful wedding present,” Elizabeth wrote in a letter postdated November 1947. “We are both enchanted with the dessert service; the different flowers and the beautiful coloring will, I know, be greatly admired by all who see it.”

She added, “This is a present which we shall use constantly, and whenever we do we shall think of the kindness and good wishes for our happiness which it represents. Your generosity will also enable us to buy at leisure something else which we shall need and for which we send you our grateful thanks in advance.”

Following their November 1947 nuptials, Elizabeth and Philip were together until their respective deaths in 2022 and 2021. (Philip died first in April 2021 at the age of 99, predeceasing Her Majesty’s September 2022 passing at 96.)

At the royal wedding, Elizabeth and Philip enjoyed a four-tier cake, which featured delicate regal decorations. According to Grinter, Polson’s slice is the first to have ever been sold.

“This one actually has its original contents which is very, very rare,” Grinter told BBC Essex. “Bear in mind it was produced at a time of [postwar] rationing … They had the most magnificent cake made for them. I’ve seen photographs of it — it would fill half a room, it was absolutely enormous.”

According to Grinter, the cake is no longer in pristine condition as the auctioneer added, “I don’t think I’d particularly want to eat it, I must admit.”

Elizabeth and Philip are buried together at the King George VI Memorial Chapel in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. They are survived by their four children — King Charles III, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward — as well as multiple grandchildren and great-grandchildren.