Elizabeth Taylor's iconic first wedding dress sells for £122,000 at auction

The wedding dress worn by late Hollywood actress Elizabeth Taylor during her first (of eight) trips down the aisle has fetch nearly £122,000 at auction - more than four times its estimated £30,000 sale price.

The cream-coloured, seed-pearl encrusted, cinched waist gown by legendary costume designer Helen Rose (also responsible for Grace Kelly's Princess of Monaco bridal dress) was worn by Taylor at her wedding to Conrad “Nicky” Hilton Jr in 1950 when she was just 18.

The then teenage actress was already a major Hollywood star who was just a year away from her Oscar-nominated performance in A Place in the Sun.

Her nuptials to Hilton Jr (son of the Hilton Hotels founder) were dubbed the “wedding of weddings” and it was a glittering highlight of the 1950 social calendar with 700 guests (including Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire) in attendance.

Sadly Taylor’s marriage to Hilton Jr lasted less than a year and the Hollywood actress went on to be married a further seven times. She had a total of seven husbands and eight weddings (having married Richard Burton twice).

Although the relationship with Hilton Jr was short-lived, of all her bridal dresses Taylor's first remains the most iconic. Christie's director Nicolette Tomkinson said the high sale price reflected the bridal gown's significance in the history of film and fashion.

Taylor died in 2011 aged 79.