Majestic undies sell for £9,000

A PAIR of silk bloomers which belonged to Queen Victoria sold for more than three times their original estimate yesterday.

They were expected to fetch £3,000.

An oil painting of Queen Victoria and her faithful servant John Brown, which the monarch gave him as a gift, made £145,250 — more than three times the estimate.

They were sold along with more than 500 royal paintings, letters, furniture and other items in an auction at Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh.

The collection came from the contents of Old Battersea House — the London home of the Forbes family, the American publishing dynasty.

The sale made more than £3 million.

Simon Edsor, director of the Fine Art Society and art adviser to the Forbes family, said: “This is a great result and demonstrates how much interest from around the globe there is in royal memorabilia.”

The bloomers and the painting were purchased by buyers who wanted to remain anonymous.

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Other items in the sale included a four-poster bed that Elizabeth Taylor slept in with her seventh husband Lord Fortensky.