Today, April 21, 2026, would have been Queen Elizabeth II's 100th birthday. The late monarch, who died at Balmoral on September 8, 2022, at the age of 96, did not live to see her centenary — but a world that loved, admired, and collected her has marked the day with ceremonies, memorials, and a remarkably vigorous marketplace for the artifacts of her extraordinary reign.

The commemorations are real and grand. King Charles III opened the day with a personal video message remembering his "darling Mama." The King and Queen Camilla toured the British Museum to view scale models of the planned Queen Elizabeth II Memorial in St. James's Park — a translucent glass "unity" bridge inspired by the tiara she wore on her 1947 wedding day, and a bronze statue modeled after the famous Pietro Annigoni portrait of 1954. Princess Anne opened the Queen Elizabeth II Garden in Regent's Park. A Buckingham Palace reception in the evening honored her former charitable patronages alongside centenarians sharing her birthday.

For an entirely different constituency — the global community of royal collectors, auction-house regulars, philatelists, and numismatists — April 21, 2026 is something more: a market moment. Rarely does a historical figure command so unified, so simultaneous a surge of demand across so many collecting categories at once. And nowhere has that momentum been more visible in recent years than at Julien's Auctions that has become the defining venue for royal fashion and personal effects on the auction circuit.

Personal Touches: The ‘Lilibet’ Signature and Private Effects

The Queen was famously private, making items from her inner circle exceptionally coveted. In our Princess Diana’s Elegance & A Royal Collection auction, a 1971 holiday card sold for $3,575. The draw? It was signed "Lilibet," the Queen’s cherished childhood nickname used only with family and the closest of friends. This particular card came from the estate of Marion Thorpe, the Countess of Harewood and the Queen’s close confidante, offering a glimpse into the woman behind the crown.

Equally evocative of the Queen’s private life was a monogrammed brown leather suitcase stamped with the "EIIR" cipher. Formerly the property of Leonard Massey, the Queen’s First Chauffeur, this utilitarian object of travel brought $3,840 — proving that even the most functional items gain a transcendent quality when they belong to a monarch.

The ‘Diana Effect’ | High-Fashion Trophies of the People’s Princess

While the Queen represented the continuity of the Crown, Princess Diana remains the undisputed icon of Royal pop culture. The market for Diana’s wardrobe has evolved into a powerhouse sector of its own, with her "fairytale" gowns now fetching prices usually reserved for fine art.

The Midnight Sky Gown

One of the most breathtaking results in recent years was the Jacques Azagury 1985 evening dress. Worn during a royal tour of Italy and later in Vancouver, this ballerina-length gown — with its black velvet star-embroidered bodice and royal blue organza skirt—sold for a staggering $1,152,000. Its "sweet and sophisticated" design perfectly captured Diana’s patronage of the English National Ballet.

The Magenta Silk and Lace Evening Dress

A Victor Edelstein lace evening dress belonging to Princess Diana, worn in London on January 25th and in Hamburg, Germany on November 6, 1987 was sold by Julien’s for a handsome $910,000.

This evening dress was loaned for exhibition at Kensington Palace, from February 24, 2017, to February 2019, for Diana: Her Fashion Story. Kensington Palace commissioned artist Julie Verhoeven for illustrations of Diana wearing some of her well-known fashions throughout her life, one of the illustrations included the lace gown designed by Victor Edelstein. 

The Star-Studded Tulle

Another celestial-themed masterpiece, a midnight blue Murray Arbeid strapless gown decorated with diamante stars, achieved $780,000. Diana was a "Princess of Economics," famously wearing this gown multiple times (including the Phantom of the Opera premiere) to support the designers she loved.

The Catherine Walker Legacy

No designer is more synonymous with Diana than Catherine Walker. A bi-color jade and black gala gown worn by the Princess in Toronto in 1991 sold for $571,500. The partnership between Walker and Diana, which began with maternity clothes, eventually defined the "Diana Style" that continues to influence the runways of 2026.

Ten individual lots sold in Princess Diana’s Style & A Royal Collection Auction held at The Peninsula Beverly Hills fetched six-figure sums. The centerpiece was the Bellville Sassoon floral day dress Diana wore repeatedly to hospitals and children's wards throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s — a garment she deliberately re-wore, frustrating the press but endearing her further to the public. David Sassoon, who designed the piece, confirmed that Diana herself called it her "caring dress" because its bright colors put sick children at ease. It sold for $520,000 — more than double its high estimate of $300,000 — to Renae Plant, the founder and curator of The Princess Diana Museum, who had been photographed shaking Diana's hand while she wore the dress during a 1988 tour of Australia. It served as a full circle moment for the longtime Princess Diana collector.

A Catherine Walker navy pinstripe coat dress realized $455,000 against a $30,000–$50,000 estimate. A Catherine Walker cream silk evening gown also fetched $455,000. A British Lung Foundation sweatshirt — a garment Diana wore while going to the Chelsea Harbor Club with her son, Prince Harry — sold for $221,000 against a high estimate of $20,000. The auction also included items linked to Queen Elizabeth II, the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, demonstrating that collectors of the House of Windsor think of the royal family as a constellation, not individual stars.

The Birth of an Icon: The Lady Dior

Perhaps no accessory in history carries the weight of the Lady Dior handbag. Originally gifted to Diana by the First Lady of France in 1995, Diana’s frequent use of the "Chouchou" bag led Dior to officially rename it in her honor. A black lambskin version belonging to the Princess recently hammered at $325,000, over ten times its initial estimate. It represents the moment Diana stepped into her newfound independence, blending Royal duty with global fashion dominance.

The Global Authority on Royal Artifacts

The centenary of Elizabeth II's birth adds one more inflection point to the curve. New collectors have entered the market this year, drawn by the scale of commemoration; existing collectors have deepened their holdings. The institutional legitimacy of the centenary events — a memorial designed by Lord Norman Foster, a Buckingham Palace fashion retrospective, a new national charity with a £50 million government endowment — has conferred fresh cultural authority on the entire field of royal artifact collecting. And for those who want to engage with that market directly, the records at Julien's provides the clearest price guide to what this history is genuinely worth.

The items mentioned here are merely a glimpse into the historic Royal treasures that pass through our galleries and exhibitions. As we celebrate the Queen’s centenary, the connection between the public and the Royal Family remains unbreakable. Whether it is a wax-sealed letter or a million-dollar gown, these artifacts allow us to touch history.