A woman’s box of royal souvenir chocolates from 1935 has been found under her bed 88 years later—after she refused to eat them because her dad told her not to.
Vera Petchell was given the chocolates to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V and Queen Mary when she was an 8-year-old girl.
But she never ate them on her father’s orders, and she treasured the souvenir for a lifetime up until six years ago when she thought she'd lost them.
They vanished without a trace when Ms. Petchell was 90 years old, and by that time she’d kept them safe for a staggering 82 years.
She passed away, aged 95, in November last year.
The 88-year-old snack was found hidden inside a toffee tin at the back of a drawer under Ms. Petchell’s bed and could now fetch hundreds of pounds at auction.
“Mum was mortified when she lost the chocolates,“ said Nadine Mccafferty, 71, from Beeston, one of Ms. Petchell’s four children. ”She had us hunting high and low for them. We looked everywhere.
“They used to be in a drawer in her bedroom, but we couldn’t find them. She thought we’d accidentally thrown them out.”
They found them while clearing her house in Beeston after she died at age 95 in November 2022.
“They were tucked away at the back of a drawer under her bed. They were hidden inside an old toffee tin. That’s what confused us,” Ms. Mccafferty said. "They never used to be in the toffee tin. When we were looking for them we spotted the toffee tin but never thought to open it.
“It’s a shame mum never knew we’d found them. She spent the last few years of her life wondering where they’d got to.
“She kept them safe forever. Her dad told her not to eat them because they might be worth something one day.”
And her father’s advice now appears to be right, as the Rowntree & Co. Ltd. chocolates are now expected to fetch 100 to 200 pounds at auction.
“After finally finding the chocolates and knowing how much they meant to Mum, we decided to put them into auction to preserve them,“ Ms. Mccafferty added. ”We can’t really split them between four.”
Ms. Petchell was born in September 1927. At age 5, in 1932, she started at Princess Field School in Holbeck, Leeds.
“In 1935, all the school children were presented with a box of chocolates to mark the royal Silver Jubilee,” Ms. Mccafferty said. “The gift was arranged by the then Lord Mayor of Leeds, William Hemingway.
“Mum always did what her dad told her. She was a great character and enjoyed a good life.
“She had a few jobs but ended up as a cardiographer at Leeds General Infirmary in the days before you needed a degree to do something like that.
“As well as her four children—three daughters and a son—she had seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.”
The chocolates are set to go under the hammer at Hansons Auctioneers in Etwall, Derbyshire, between Oct. 19 and 24.
“What a relief those chocolates have been found and are here to honor Ms. Petchell’s memory,“ said Charles Hanson, owner of Hansons Auctioneers. ”I can imagine her horror at thinking she had lost them after treasuring them for more than 80 years.
“But this story is destined to have a happy ending. This find has sparked memories of a wonderful Yorkshire woman, old-school discipline, and a child’s respect for her father.
“It must have been hard for Ms. Petchell not to eat a morsel of chocolate, but in those days, a gift like this was so special it was treated like treasure.
“No doubt Ms. Petchell occasionally had a peep, just to check her chocolates were still there.”
The auction house is not sure when she put the chocolates away inside the Thorne’s toffee tin but says it helped preserve them during hot summers.
“Consequently, they’re in good condition considering they were made nearly a century ago,” Mr. Hanson said. “They are partially visible as some of the silver foil covering them has torn. The chunky chocolate pieces have Rowntree’s name on each piece.”
“Rowntree are an important manufacturer in Britain’s chocolate heritage, and this historical find will appeal to collectors of both chocolate and royal memorabilia.”
Rowntree was founded in 1862 at Castlegate, in York, by Henry Isaac Rowntree, a Quaker.
In 1881, Rowntree introduced Fruit Pastilles, and the product proved to be a great success, accounting for about 25 percent of the company’s tonnage by 1887.
Around 1898, the company acquired its own cocoa plantations in the West Indies and in 1899, Rowntree introduced its first milk chocolate block.
