What could £1 get you in 1965?
7 pints of beer on a Friday night, and your bus fare home. A pair of jeans from Woolworths. A fancy Parker ballpoint pen.
Or, as one man found out, it could also buy you something more unusual. More rare. And altogether more wonderful. Than any of the three items I’ve mentioned above.
When Mr Edward Humphreys walked into a small antiques shop in Hemel Hempstead 59 years ago, I doubt he was expecting to emerge with this.
And I doubt he quite realised the significance of what he’d bought.
Which was, and is...
One of the most extraordinary artefacts from the reign of Queen Victoria.
An item that we now know to be one of the scarcest and most intimate Queen Victoria objects still in existence.
Here’s the full story:
Queen Victoria loved to give her friends and servants gifts. These ranged from small pieces of jewellery to her own silk underwear.
Yet there was one type of gift that Victoria saved for only her closest and dearest. The most intimate gift of all. More intimate, even, than her silk bloomers. An item that is today rarely seen at auction. And is always in high demand.
This was a gift that was immensely popular in the 1840s and 1850s. In fact, Queen Victoria and husband Prince Albert helped popularise it.
It fell out of fashion in subsequent years. Yet today, collectors are returning to this field. Because they realise that no artefact gets you closer to the key figures of history than this.
Yet here’s the even more extraordinary thing.
While Victoria occasionally gave this item as a gift, the example you can acquire today is different.
Because this item comes from her childhood. And as such is possibly unique in the collectibles sector.
I’ll reveal all in a moment. But just stop and think for a minute. Think of Queen Victoria’s cosseted childhood at Kensington Palace. The 1820s. 200 years ago. The decade that Napoleon dies. The Duke of Wellington becomes prime minister. The first photographs are taken.
This item was there amongst it all.
And it predates the extraordinary events that Victoria would preside over as queen from 1837 to 1901. The growth of the British Empire to become the world’s first super power. The abolition of slavery. Darwin’s publication of On the Origin of Species.
All that was to come.
And the artefact you can own today? Discovered in an antiques shop 59 years ago?
A lock of Queen Victoria’s hair. From when she was a child.
Victoria's hair comes beautifully presented in an ebonised frame
A perfect memento of the cherubic girl with curls in her hair. Who would one day preside over the British Empire.
A vintage handwritten label is affixed to the back of the frame. It reads: “Queen Victoria’s Hair when a girl, left w[ith] Miss Syke’s things”.
The label reads: "Queen Victoria’s Hair when a girl, left w[ith] Miss Syke’s things”.Who was Miss Syke or Miss Sykes? Likely a descendant of a member of Queen Victoria’s royal household.
That’s certainly the view of Robert Mackworth-Young, the former librarian at Windsor Castle. He wrote in a letter to Mr Humphreys in 1968:
“I can only surmise that Miss. Sykes may have been descended from a lady connected with the Queen or her Household whose name was subsequently changed through marriage. “
That original letter accompanies the hair.
Victoria had fair hair as a child- A scarf Victoria knitted as an award for a British soldier auctioned with a $100,000 estimate in 2016
- A pair of Victoria’s underwear made £16,250 in 2016
- And just in December, two Christmas tree ornaments that belonged to Victoria achieved £1,500
- Mozart: $53,520
- Lord Nelson: $70,000
- Edgar Allen Poe: $80,000
- Elvis Presley: $115,000
- Che Guevara: $119,500
Among the rarest and most desirable artefacts from Queen Victoria's reignIf you sold each of these strands individually I estimate you’d realise £60,000 in current market conditions. Just a thought if you’re entrepreneurially minded.
And you also receive:
• Free worldwide delivery (fully insured)
• Our Lifetime Moneyback Guarantee of Authenticity (that you’ll never need to use)
• Our 28-day returns policy (if you don’t love the hair when it arrives, just return it for an immediate refund)
Act now
Historical hair is our #1 best seller. This is the first time I’ve advertised the lock of Queen Victoria’s hair for sale. And at this price, it will appeal to many.
I urge you to act now.
Buy Queen Victoria's Hair Now
Call +44 (0)1534 639 998
info@paulfrasercollectibles.com
Until next week,
Paul Fraser
PS. Don’t forget. This 200-year-old piece of Victoriana is hugely undervalued. Get it now.
