Queen Victoria's 'big pants' fetch 12k pounds at auction

A pair of Queen Victoria's underwear with a 45.5 inch waist have sold for a "record breaking" 12,000 pounds at an auction in the UK.
The bloomers, which bear the stamp VR for Victoria Regina, were bought by an English woman who is a private collector for 12,090 pounds.
"This is a record-breaking price for Victoria royal intimate apparel," said Principal auctioneer Richard Edmonds at Chippenham Auction Rooms in Wiltshire.
The underwear, dating to the late 1890s, was in 'excellent' condition, having spent years preserved in tissue paper in a temperature-controlled storeroom at Yesterday's World museum in Sussex, 'express.Co.Uk' reported.

"Items of Queen Victoria's clothing were often given to members of the royal household, particularly after her death in 1901," said Edmonds.
"We've been able to date the pants by measuring the waistband.

"As there's such a good photographic record of Queen Victoria, it's possible to calculate her waist measurement over time, so we know roughly when she would have worn items of this size," Edmonds said.
The woman who bought the pants also purchased a number of other items of royal clothing and a set of replica Crown Jewels, which she bought for 5,500 pounds.
The pants were sold alongside a nightdress, stockings and hats worn by Victoria and her third child Princess Alice.

In 2014, a pair of Victoria's bloomers sold at an auction in Kent for 6,200 pounds.
Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from June 1837 until her death in January 1901.