This Locket From Queen Victoria Sold for Well Above Its Pre-Sale Estimate

Cambridge, U.K.—Gifts from Queen Victoria to two of her goddaughters hit the auction block this month. Part of Cambridge, England auctioneer Cheffins’ “Jewellery, Silver and Watches” sale, the most buzzed about item was a gold locket Queen Victoria gave to her goddaughter Lady Victoria Scott. Monogrammed with “VR” on the front and featuring a personal engraving reading, “To Lady Victoria Scott, on her marriage Feb y, 23 1865 from Victoria R.” Queen Victoria gave the locket on occasion of her goddaughter’s marriage to Schomberg Henry Kerr, 9th Marquess of Lothian. The gold locket is set with diamonds, emeralds and rubies and was estimated to fetch between £3,000 and £5,000 (about $3,971 to $6,618 at current exchange rates). It went for six times the low end of that estimate when it garnered £18,000, or $23,824, selling to a Chinese telephone bidder. An online bidder from the United States claimed christening gifts Queen Victoria gave to Lady Victoria Scott’s daughter, also one of the queen’s goddaughters, Victoria Alexandrina Alberta Kerr, who was named for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The pearl and diamond convertible brooch/pendant with original fitted case is engraved: “To Lady Victoria Alexandrina Alberta Kerr from her Godmother VICTORIA R 11 December 1876.” The jewel was accompanied by a cased portrait miniature of the child and original letters from Queen Victoria and Lady Victoria Scott, as seen in the picture just above. The lot fetched £8,000 ($10,589), double the low estimate of £4,000 ($5,294). Other sale highlights were a portrait miniature of Charlotte Thynne, Duchess of Buccleuch, by artist, Robert Thorburn, which sold for £2400 ($3,177), though originally only estimated to earn between £600 and £800 ($794 and $1,059), and an amber snuff box that was another gift from Queen Victoria to one of her direct descendants, which sold for £3,200 ($4,235). Cheffins Head of Jewelry, Silver and Watches, Steven Collins, said: “Any jewelry with royal connections is always an exciting find when it surfaces on the art market and these pieces come with cast-iron provenance from direct descent of the family. “The result achieved for the locket gifted to Lady Victoria Scott was over and above expectations, with competitive bidding on multiple phone lines and online from interested parties from across the globe.”

Full sale results are online.