Queen Victoria's knickers go for £1,700!

Charles Ross Auctioneers, based at The Old Town Hall, Woburn, put the unusual item up for sale on Saturday.

Dating from around 1880 to 1890, and clocking in with an impressive 42inch (107cm) waist measurement, the garment was made exclusively for Her Majesty. The sale follows a Charles Ross external valuation day in Hitchin late last year where a woman brought them along for inspection.

The woman had bought them herself at auction for £10 – at Christie’s in 1981 – as a novelty Christmas present.

Along with the knickers, the winning bidder also received a child’s bonnet from a similar period as part of the lot, and the original provenance of the Christie’s catalogue. In the past similar underwear has sold in the “mid hundreds of pounds”, although in 2013 a sale in Derby saw a pair fetch £10,500.