Century-old tin of chocolate from Queen Victoria sold at auction

A 122-year-old tin of Yorkshire chocolate discovered in an attic of a house in Immingham in North East Lincolnshire was sold at auction on Tuesday for £440 after attracting interest from around the world.

The extraordinary find is one of the tins of chocolate that Queen Victoria sent to her troops fighting in the Boer War – complete with all but one small piece of its half pound of Rowntree’s chocolate made in York in 1899.

The tin was sold to a London buyer in an online auction staged by Eddison’s Auction Centre in Scunthorpe on Tuesday, September 20.

Paul Cooper, of auctioneers Eddisons, told The Lincolnite that he believes it was a “world record price at auction for a tin of Boer War chocolates”.

Auctioneer Paul Cooper from Eddisons holding the 122-year-old tin of chocolate, which was discovered in the attic of a house in Immingham. | Photo: Eddisons

Mr Cooper said: “That’s the thing that makes the find special. The tins turn up quite often but it’s incredibly rare to find one that still contains the chocolate.

“This tin was found in a box of household junk during a recent attic clearout at a house in Immingham. It is believed that it was stored away many years ago by the vendor’s late husband, whose grandfather fought in the Boer War. She had no idea it was there.”

The dozen bars of chocolate in the tin are stamped with the Rowntree name. The tin was made for Rowntree by Barringer Wallis and Manners, the Mansfield company which had pioneered the idea of selling products in decorative tins back in the 1870s.

Mr Cooper added: “It is incidentally some of the most controversial chocolate ever made, a Royal commission that triggered a row involving all of the country’s most famous chocolate makers.

“The Queen had decided to cheer up her troops fighting in the war…which was going rather badly at the time…by personally paying for a seasonal gift tin of chocolate to be sent to every ordinary soldier. The problem was that Rowntree, Cadbury and Fry were all owned by Quakers. They were pacifists, opposed to the war and appalled by the idea of being seen to profit from the fighting.

“In the end the three firms decided that they would make the chocolate – and donate it free of charge – but it would be unbranded and in tins that did not carry their names.

“The Queen was not amused. She wanted the boys to know they were getting best British chocolate. The firms backed down again. Sort of. Some of the chocolate was then marked but the tins never were.”