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Slice of royal wedding cake goes for £17,000

The cake, in a ribbon-tied, white silk covered cardboard box inscribed "A piece of our wedding cake. WE WE 3-VI-37", was the subject of a protracted bidding war on Thursday.

Though originally estimated to sell for only $500 to $1,000 (£300 to £600) its sentimental value drove its price up in the first session of a nine-day auction of the couple's possessions at Sotheby's in New York.

The "WE WE" in the inscription stood for Wallis and Edward, who abdicated as King Edward VIII to marry his beloved Mrs Simpson.

The buyer, Benjamin Yim, said it was a bargain. He said: "This is a memorabilia sale and so it is according to the importance of the person and the event and this was the most important event in the life of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor."

Mr Yim said he had no plans to eat the cake.

Also going under the hammer is the desk at which the King signed his abdication in 1936 in order to marry the American-born divorcee.

The Duke's ceremonial sword dated with his 17th birthday failed to sell after bidders fell short of the auctioneers' estimate of $45,000 (£28,000).

But a Cecil Beaton portrait of the Duchess of Windsor fetched $135,500 (£85,000), nearly 10 times the estimated price.

All 40,000 items up for sale are owned by Harrods boss Mohammed Al Fayed, who bought the Windsors' mansion in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris several years ago.

He wants the proceeds to go to a new children's charity named after his late son Dodi.

The sale was postponed last September after the deaths of Dodi Fayed and Diana, Princess of Wales, in a car crash in Paris.

The lots include furniture, paintings, photographs, personal mementos, letters, books and clothing.

The sale could raise anything between $6.4 million and $64 million (£4m and £40m), experts say.

He said: "The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were two of the century's most influential figures in fashion and taste."

Mr Friedman said the sale was almost unprecedented: "One has to go back to the 17th century to find anything comparable - the sale of the possessions of Charles I."

Mr Al Fayed said the Dodi Fayed International Charitable Foundation would provide funds to causes supported by his son and the Princess.

Diana Brooks, Sotheby's chief executive, said: "With extraordinary depth, the collection documents Edward's childhood, his early years when he was considered perhaps the most popular Prince of Wales up to that time, his brief reign as King Edward VIII and his abdication."

Among the collection are a group of 10,000 photographs, which were discovered in a covered bath in the house while renovation was taking place. There are also paintings by Munnings and Degas.

It is ten years since the Duchess's jewels were sold, also by auction, following her death.

Mr Al Fayed said his family wished to use more of the Windsor residence for their own use. He had decided to sell its contents to give them the space to be able to do so.

King Edward VIII's abdication just 11 months after he had assumed the throne in 1936 following the death of his father King George V caused a constitutional crisis and shook the monarchy.

Wallis Simpson was considered an unacceptable consort for the King but he said she was "the woman he loved" and he refused to abandon her to retain his throne.

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Edward VIII's broadcast after his abdication

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