Queen Victoria's stockings sold at auction in Newcastle

A pair of Queen Victoria's silk stockings, with delicate floral embroidery to ankles and feet, stitched ''VR6'' to top Credit: Anderson and Garland

A pair of Queen Victoria's silk stockings have sold for £220 at auction in Newcastle.

The stockings, which date back to the 1840s, went under the hammer at Anderson & Garland auctioneers on August 9.

The undergarments, in mint condition despite their age, exceeded their estimated price of £150.

The monarch apparently wore the cream hand stitched underwear in around 1845 when she was in her twenties, starting a fashion which spread among young Victorian women.

The stockings are understood to have been Queen Victoria's favourite design and bore her initials.

On the queen's death, her undergarments and much of her wardrobe were distributed to members of the royal household, and it is thought this is how they came into the possession of a collector.

Queen Victoria, an avid diarist, once wrote:

The hand-stitched garments had been valued at £100-£150 Credit: Anderson and Garland

Auctioneer Fred Wryley-Birch said:

A pair of bloomers said to have belonged to Queen Victoria sold for £12,000 at auction in East Sussex in July 2015.