Queen’s Skivvies Sell For Fifteen Grand

I’ve been buying vintage kickers since before it was cool. I’ve never spent much money on them; a fiver here, a tenner there. A suspiciously stained corset from a Glasgow costume shop was my most expensive purchase at about twenty pounds.

I’d never dream of paying ten thousand pounds (about $15,000!) for a massive pair of bloomers. But as far as I know, the carefully scrubbed stains in my 1920s silk panties weren’t produced by Queen Victoria.

The monarch’s skivvies and two pairs of stockings were auctioned in Edinburgh by Lyon and Turnbull. They were part of a collection owned by the Forbes family, and were sold along with paintings, a bed Elizabeth Taylor probably intercoursed in with at least one of her husbands and other things which aren’t as interesting as these stupendous knickers. Which are in a frame.

As well as being a vintage undergarmets collector, I used to be a picture framer. These facts make me expertly qualified to tell you that Her Majesty Queen Victoria’s undercrackers make any other granny panties look minute. Not to mention anything NuRoyal Pippa may or may not be wearing between her bridesmaid dress and FakeBake tan.

You might also be interested to know the weirdest thing I was ever asked to frame was a lock of a dead man’s hair pinned to a stuffed fish. I’ll bet you the price of a former monarch’s drawers there’s a framer in Edinburgh who can beat that.

Contact the author here: miriam@morningquickie.com