The wedding day portrait of Margaret Thatcher is coming up for sale as part of a wider family consignment at Sloane Street Auctions in London on November 29.
Depicting the late former Prime Minister, then aged 26, in the midnight blue velvet dress and wide-brimmed hat with luxuriant feather, the 24 x 20in signed oil on canvas is by Rosalind Kent, an artist better known for flower paintings.
Wedding
The wedding portrait showing Margaret Thatcher as he appeared on December 13, 1915. The estimate is £4,000-6,000.
Margaret Roberts and Denis Thatcher married at Wesley’s Chapel in London on December 13, 1951 and the outfit she wore sold for £25,000 at auction 2015, while her red dispatch box went for £242,500.
The portrait, which is estimated at £4,000-6,000, leads a selection of around 100 personal items consigned from the Thatchers’ home, including the desk on which the Conservative leader planned her 1979 General Election victory.
Sofa
The George III-style camelback sofa upholstered in pale blue silk, that was part of the 10 Downing Street furniture during the Thatcher premiership from 1979 to 1990. The estimate is £1,000-2,000.
The Thatcher family bought the desk in the 1960s for their home in Kent, The Dormers. It then moved with them to 19 Flood Street in the early ’70s and was kept in the front room. Mrs Thatcher used it to make notes for her many speeches, most notably during the years 1975-79 during her time as Leader of the Opposition and her triumphant campaign to become the UK’s first woman prime minister. It then moved with the family to Chester Square in 1991, where it remained. The 54-inch wide antique five-drawer mahogany desk is expected to sell for £1,000-2,000.
Coat
The coat by designer Tomasz Starzewski that Baroness Thatcher wore for a private Downing Street visit with then Prime Minister David Cameron in 2010. The estimate is £800-1,200.
Also for sale is a blue coat by designer Tomasz Starzewski that Baroness Thatcher wore for a private Downing Street visit with then Prime Minister David Cameron in 2010. A photograph of her waving to reporters with Cameron in front of the door of number 10 shows her wearing it.
Desk
The antique desk on which Mrs Thatcher planned her victorious 1979 General Election campaign. The estimate is £1,000-2,000.
The coat is being offered with a matching ensemble. Tomasz Starzewski also designed outfits for Princess Diana, Queen Camilla, and the Duchess of Edinburgh, as well as designing the wedding dress for Victoria Lockwood for her marriage to Viscount Althorp, Princess Diana’s brother, in 1989. The estimate is £800-1,200.
Other Thatcher-related lots include a George III-style camelback sofa upholstered in pale blue silk, that was part of the 10 Downing Street furniture during the Thatcher premiership from 1979 to 1990, estimated at £1,000-2,000.
A mahogany cutlery canteen, with handwritten label inscribed by Baroness Thatcher, has a guide of £400-600, while presentation silver and gold includes four gold sovereigns presented to Baroness Thatcher by British Petroleum plc Baku, Azerbaijan, on 7 September 1992 (est. £3,000-5,000).
“These items are imbued with the spirit of the times and helped form the backdrop of some of the most historic moments in our nation’s political history of the past 50 years,” said Sloane Street Auctions’ owner Daniel Hunt.
“This is exactly the range and quality of items that used to be offered by Christie’s South Kensington before it closed, and we are happy to don that mantle. Indeed, not only have several of our clients already pointed that out, but we are also delighted to work with Hugh Edmeades, Christie’s South Kensington’s former chairman, as our auctioneer on the rostrum.”
Live online bidding is available via Sloane Street Auctions’ website at www.sloanestreetauctions.com
