Elizabeth II and her sister Margaret: clothes from when they were children up for auction

It's almost like you can see it, Elizabeth II, as a child, running with her sister Margaret among the lawns of the family residences wrapped in mini dresses with puffed sleeves, ruffles and scalloped collars. Precisely those same dresses that will be sold on June 11th at auction Kerry Taylor Auctions.

How to learn from the auction house websitethe garments, all in cotton, worn by two sisters in the carefree days of their childhood and destined for the sale there are a total of six. Among these we find two bon ton dresseswith a graceful expression, both characterized by short puff sleeves: one with flowers, sold with a photo portraying little Elizabeth wearing that very itemand another with a red and white pattern.

Photo: Kerry Taylor Auctions

Kerry Taylor Auctions

To these is added a yellow dress, with smock detail and long sleeves, a pair of exactly the same models for the two sisters with the romantic floral pattern with culottes en pendant, and finally a pure white dress complete with cap matched as the time required.

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The origin of these pieces worn by the two little girls around the 1930s is connected to the figure of Clara Knightwho was first the nanny of Elizabeth, or the Queen Mother, in 1900, and then of her daughter, Elizabeth II, starting in 1926. A person very close to the royal family, so much so that when the two little sisters grew up, Knight was given permission to keep some of their clothes. Precisely the ones that are being auctioned today.

Photo: Kerry Taylor Auctions

Kerry Taylor Auctions

Clara Knight died in 1946, six years before Elizabeth II ascended the throne. The clothes of the baby royal they came into the hands of Knight's family, who subsequently donated them to the Bexhill Museum. After the museum's renovation, the clothes were sent back to the Knight family who gave them to the antique collector Daniel Haddon, who, since then, has not failed to lend them to Glamis Castle, where Elizabeth spent her summer holidays, for some exhibitions such as last year's, Children of Glamis.

«The clothes make Elizabeth seem more human because you can see her as a child, running around getting dirty and playing», Haddon would have said as we read on Daily Mail. “When you look at the clothes and notice the repairs, you can guess that they were sewing them up and using them as much as possible.” This is a custom, as Haddon points out, which is easy to identify with -, royal or less.