Happy and Glorious: Royal collectables up for auction

A number of Royal artefacts, including Queen Victoria's bloomers and a tapestry of the Queen Mother, are to be auctioned.

Other lots include a portrait of the Duke of Edinburgh and a "surprise sphere" that opens to show the heads of Prince Charles and Lady Diana.

The Happy and Glorious auction takes place in Chiswick, west London, at the end of May.

Here are a few of the items that might tempt a Royal Family aficionado.

Like a cross between a doom-laden fortune cookie and a Kinder Surprise, this gilt sphere cracks open to reveal a golden Prince Charles and Lady Diana smirking at each other.

Created by renowned gold and silversmith Stuart Devlin, a similar Royal wedding surprise sphere sold in 2014 for £280.

This one has an estimated price of between £600 and £800.

This snipping of Queen Victoria's hair is encased in a gold locket and could be yours for an estimated £500.

Lockets date back centuries but were particularly popular in Victorian times when it became known the Queen was fond of them.

Prince Albert gave her the gift of a bracelet with eight lockets attached to it - each containing a lock of hair from one of their eight children.

She in turn gave them as private gifts to family and close members of staff. One of her ladies-of-the-bedchamber received one containing the monarch's hair in 1872, while another was given to a wardrobe maid in 1874.

After Albert's death, Queen Victoria took to wearing a large mourning locket which contained a photograph of him on one side and a lock of his hair on the other.

Fans of abdication speeches or scarves may be keen to bid for this - it's pure silk and described as being "in very good condition".

On 11 December 1936 the former King Edward VIII announced that he had abdicated the throne in favour of his brother, to be free to marry the woman he loved - Mrs Wallis Simpson.

Given a guide price of £250, the 18in x 18in (46cm x 46cm) silk square might be out of the appropriate scarf price range of some people - but you could always print your P45 on a tea towel for similar effect.

A damask linen napkin decorated with the monogram of the Tsar "H II" (Nicolas II) could be adorning your table for about £700.

A perfect piece of fabric for dabbing at the imperial mouth, it is tonally woven with the sceptre and the imperial sword intertwined under a crown, and the coat of arms of the Romanoffs.

The dates 1910-1911 are in the corners. Perhaps a buyer familiar with the 24-hour clock could use it as a reminder of what time to ring the dinner gong.

This bust of the Queen Mother is considered a limited edition with only another 499 knocking about.

The somewhat quizzical depiction of the Wedgwood Carrera ware (a sort of pretend marble) on the left is being sold with a more blinged-up gilt spelter version of the same lady in her younger years - but with a more placid expression.

The ladies could be yours for an estimated £80-£120.

This oil portrait of the Duke of Edinburgh has attracted the highest guide price - of between £7,000 and £12,000 - and comes with a letter written by Prince Philip to the artist, Feliks Topolski.

Topolski was born and trained in Poland, before coming to London in 1935 to provide illustrations of King George V's Silver Jubilee for his native country's publication Literary News.

He spent the rest of his life in the UK, became an official war artist and painted scenes of the Battle of Britain and the impact of the Blitz on London.

The undergarments which clad the nether regions of the Empress of India are no strangers to auction houses - a number of pairs of the voluminous bloomers have been sold, with prices ranging from a few hundred quid to more than £6,000.

This pair, made from French lawn linen, date from the early years of her reign, have a 30in (76cm) waist and would have reached almost to the knee.

It was apparently fairly common for Queen Victoria to give under linens which were no longer used to loyal servants.

However, if your modern-day boss starts handing out their old pants as bonuses, a word with HR (rather than HRH) is recommended.

Fans of the Queen Mother priced out of the figurine market may want to use their cash for this tapestry, valued at £50-£70.

Perhaps reflecting its modest price, it's described as being "machine made" but with "some wear".

After a hard day's bidding, some buyers may like to revitalise themselves with a bite of 15-year-old cake produced for the 2007 Diamond Wedding anniversary of the Queen and Prince Philip, up for sale with a guide price of £200-£300.

Sweet treats with regal links have been under the hammer before - a slice of one of Charles and Diana's 23 wedding cakes sold for £1,850 last year, while in 1998 an American collector bought a chunk of cake from the 1937 wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor for $30,000 (about £24,000).

At the other end of the fruitcake scale, a piece from the nuptials of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson once fetched a slightly underwhelming top bid of £36.03.

Also up for grabs are some bottles of Armagnac from the Queen's Jubilee of 1952, bottled for the 2002 Golden Jubilee.

Prior Vital Dufour, who was ordained Cardinal of the Catholic church by Pope Clement in 1313, once listed 40 of the virtues of Armagnac including: "It renders man joyous, preserves youth and retards senility."

Perhaps it's been the answer to the Queen's extraordinary reign?

Happy and Glorious: A Royal Sale begins at 13:00 BST on Tuesday 31 May.

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