How much money would you pay for a pair of Queen Victoria’s underpants?

One Canadian woman this week decided $9,000 was a good amount. Before the auction, they were valued at $1,100.

The buyer of the 50-inch-waist knickers won the knits at a central England auction on Wednesday. Auctioneer Charles Hanson said Queen Victoria’s bloomers belonged to "a very big lady of quite small stature with a very wide girth." The UK’s longest-reigning monarch, who lived from 1819 to 1901 and became queen at the tender age of 18, was said to be five feet tall.

The Daily Telegraph recently reported that the size of the skivvies is just more proof that the Queen had become "morbidly obese" toward the end of her life; the average British woman’s waist size today is 33 inches.

The royal handmade drawers — which date back to the 1890s — bear the monogram "VR" for Victoria Regina, and are open-crotch style, with separate legs joined by a drawstring at the waist. That style was popular in the late Victorian era. Perhaps that’s because it made it slightly easier to use the loo when ladies had to wear the various layers of garments in that day and age?

"These pants, considering their provenance and pedigree, are very exciting," Hanson told the Associated Press.

The queen’s chemise, with a 66-inch bust, sold for $8,000, while her nightgown sold for $11,000. Both were valued at $600 each.

Vanessa Savage of Hanson’s Auctioneers, said the knickers had been kept preserved for decades by a family in western England whose ancestor was one of the Queen’s servants.

"They may not look too regal at first glance, but their provenance is concrete," she told the Telegraph.