The Queen Victoria's Panty Charm ... Or the Panty Finder Continues

Blogging amazes me. It never ceases to surprise me. The connections, the small world made smaller, the way everyone knows someone who knows someone who knows you or me is a constant wonder.

Charland and Barbara are sisters who grew up in Montana, though years ago Charland moved to Canada and Barbara to the Netherlands. Their mother had a sister who is the Grandmother of my Mother's business partner Holly.

Small world.

I met them, plus their friend Lorraine, who introduced them to my blog years ago.

Charland's creates needlepoint and makes silver charms:

Charland Designs

Barbara works with bronze and sculpture:

Art Makers

We spent a lovely day together. The three of them encouraging me to open a bed and breakfast and offer tours of Provence, and or write a book. Spread my wings... which sounds interesting, at least they did not tell me to take up needlepoint! Charland and Lorraine said they are coming as soon as I organize a tour. Wheels are spinning... Brocante, food, antique textiles, wine, arts, culture... photography...

Then they giggled, they had a gift for French Husband the Panty Finder.

I knew instantly that this was going to be good...

I called Densie a.k.a. W.R. and or Panty Lady to tell her to hold on to her panties the story continues. She promptly told me that she should charge me everytime I mention it. Yeah, right, not.

Charland created a pattern years ago of the Late Queen Victoria's knickers (panties - bloomers) also she added Queen Victoria's royal monogram and a silver bloomer charm to each pattern. Charland gave French Husband a silver bloomer charm for his heroic effort of locating Denise's panties by the river. I thought to myself I am married to,

"Prince Panty Finder!"

When I looked up Queen Victoria's Knickers online... I saw that a pair had sold yesterday for £6,200!! I tell you blogging/internet is amazing. I never knew about, nor cared about Queen Victoria's knickers until yesterday. Gee Yann, gee Denise maybe you two should be looking for the real deal and not just a pair of black panties down by the river. Maybe if I keep telling this story Denise's panties wlll be worth something?

Photo Source Queen Victoria's Bloomers

Photo Source via:

"The bloomers are stored at Kensington Palace in West London and form part of the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection which is composed of 12, 000 items that were all once worn by royalty and courtiers from the 17th century until the present day.

With a 50-inch waist and an impressive 66 inch bust, Britain's longest-reigning monarch's underwear are embroidered with a small crown and the initials VR, and also have a number to ensure they could be kept track of when sent to the laundry.

Vanessa Savage, a textiles expert at Hanson's Auctioneers said that Victoria's knickers are extremely plain and "made of a soft, fine cotton and sewn by hand, with fine attention to stitchwork, and the minute sewing would have taken days."

Hugs all around, good laughter, a bit of history at the French brocante.

Photo source and more...

"The monogram on a pair of Queen Victoria’s drawers. Each of her undergarments were embroidered with her royal cypher ‘VR’ - Victoria Regina and a catalog number. They also reveal that at the time of her death she had a 50 inch waist. As her height was 4 foot 7 inches this would make her almost as wide as she was tall."