Baroness Thatcher’s wedding dress sells for £25,000 at historic auction

Margaret Thatcher’s wedding dress sold for £25,000 yesterday at an auction of the late prime minister’s personal belongings.

A Christie's staff member adjusts Margaret Thatcher's wedding outfit. Picture: PA

Her dispatch box and an array of power suits were also due to be auctioned.

The sale came after the V&A reportedly turned down the chance to exhibit the collection – a claim denied by the London museum.

Lady Thatcher wore the midnight blue velvet dress and matching muff at her wedding to Dennis Thatcher on 13 December, 1951, at Wesley’s Chapel in London.

The dress sold just days after what would have been their 64th wedding anniversary.

Some 150 items are going under the hammer at the sale at Christie’s auction house in Piccadilly, central London.While another 200 lots are being sold online in a sale that closes today.

The sale takes place 25 years after Mrs Thatcher left office and in the year when she would have celebrated her 90th birthday.

The auction house said it expected a lot of interest, and bids were placed from all over the world - including Australia, South Korea and America.

A signed typescript of her speech, in which she quotes St Francis of Assisi, “Where there is Discord may we bring Harmony”, sold for £37,500. She delivered the words on 4 May 1979, as Britain’s first female prime minister.