Queen Victoria’s Undies Sold at Auction

Posted on Nov 1, 2011

Wikimedia Commons

This portrait of the young Queen Victoria by Franz Xavier Winterhalter dates from 1842.

These are strange times in British culture, what with all the Wills-and-Kate worship set against the backdrop of turmoil over austerity measures and a faltering economy, plus the recent news that the terms of Old Blighty’s outworn monarchical system are being updated to pander slightly less blatantly to the old boys’ club.

Somewhere in the midst of all this confusion comes the startling report that an array of Queen Victoria’s unmentionables have gone on the auction block, and that someone paid £9,735 ($15,534) for a pair of her antiquated underpants. We are uncertain, as we go to print, how to process this information.  —KA

BBC:

Two pairs of silk stockings worn by Britain’s longest serving monarch also went under the hammer in Edinburgh - one pair selling for more than £5,000.

The collection belonged to the US publishing dynasty, the Forbes family.

It had previously been held in Old Battersea House - the London home of the family.

More than £3m was made in the sale of Victorian treasures held by auctioneers Lyon and Turnbull at their Edinburgh salesroom.

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