London collector secures 120-year-old Mansfield chocolate tin - still with chocolate inside

The 122-year-old tin is one of the chocolate gift tins Queen Victoria sent to her troops fighting in the Boer War – and is complete with all but one small piece of its chocolate.

Paul Cooper, of auction house Eddisons, 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 has the chocolate.

“This tin was found in a box of junk during a recent attic clearout at a house in Immingham, North Lincolnshire.

“It is believed 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 tin was expected to make between £100 and £200 in the online auction at eddisons.com – but the hammer went down at £440, totalling £520 with commission – more than twice pre-sale expectations.

An Eddisons spokesman said the successful bid was made by a London collector.

Speaking about the item pre-sale, Mr Cooper said the chocolate itself provoked a furore at the time.

He said: “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 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.”

The dozen bars of chocolate in the Immingham tin are stamped with the name of the York chocolate maker Rowntree, the name, still faintly discernible even after 122 years.

Although the tins were unmarked, Cadbury, Fry and Rowntree used different firms to make them and there are slight differences between the three.

Rowntree’s tins were made by Barringer, Wallis and Manners of Mansfield, which was later taken over by the famous Metal Box in 1939.

But could the chocolate still be eaten?

Mr Cooper said: “Impressive as it looks, I don’t think I’d be tempted to give it a go. The experts say that chocolate actually doesn’t become hazardous as it ages – it just loses its flavour, texture and taste. That said, they probably did not have 122-year-old bars of the stuff in mind.”