A heart-shaped locket gifted by Queen Victoria to her granddaughter. (Sloane Street Auctions via SWNS)
By James Gamble
A heart-shaped locket gifted by Queen Victoria to her granddaughter who never married has sold for nearly £12,000 (over $16,000) at auction.
The gold locket was given by the monarch to her goddaughter, Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, as a gift in 1896.
The princess, who lived between 1870 and 1948, was known for her charity work and was the daughter of Princess Helena, the third daughter and fifth child of Victoria and Prince Albert.
The younger Helena was also known as Thora, the name inscribed on the locket gifted by her grandmother.
(Sloane Street Auctions via SWNS)
Set to the center with a single, cushion-cut diamond, the inscription to the reverse reads: "To Thora from her Godmother Victoria, 1896."
Queen Victoria died just five years after the gift was given.
The locket comes in the original, purple silk velvet Fraser and Haw's case, together with a group of letters relating to the locket.
Helena Victoria never married and instead dedicated her life to charitable works, particularly with the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) and Princess Christian's Nursing Home at Windsor.
The locket was sold by the parish churches of Bathwick St Mary and St John the Baptist, in aid of the Wells Cathedral Appeal Fund, on Oct. 21, 1978, to the father of the current vendor.
(Sloane Street Auctions via SWNS)
The locket was sold by London-based Sloane Street Auctions, and had been expected to sell for between £1,500 and £2,000.
However, the historic piece sold for a whopping £11,862 at the sale — nearly five times its upper estimate.
Daniel Hunt, founder and CEO of Sloane Street Auctions, said: "These sorts of pieces would have been a natural fit for Christie's South Kensington in its day.
"But, now that it's gone, we find that consignors tend to come to us, so we are delighted to play our part in keeping this tradition of higher-end works coming to London beyond the confines of Bond Street and St James.
"It is also a happy coincidence that our auctioneer, Hugh Edmeades, was Christie's South Kensington's former chairman."
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