Unopened vintage Christmas crackers up for auction

A box of 12 unopened Christmas crackers believed to be about 100 years old is going up for auction.

The original box was discovered in a wardrobe at John Goddard's house in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire.

His daughters, Nicky Goddard and Karen Grundy, think the crackers were given to their grandparents in the 1920s or 1930s by freinds in Mablethorpe before being passed down to their parents as a wedding gift.

Karen said: "Whoever ends up buying these crackers... please do open them and look inside and enjoy them. Obviously they've been kept very very safe, and we've only ever been able to look at them."

Nicky said they had not expected to receive any interest in them object, adding they thought it was "just a box of old crackers".

Karen said: "We used to say, Dad, what are you bringing them out for? What are you putting them there for? They're old.

"But now we're looking at it in a totally different light," she laughed.

A sticker on the side of the box calls them Joey Crackers and says they are "filled with party hats and caps".

Paul Potter, of Potters Auction Saleroom, said he had "never seen anything like it" but he estimated they were made in England around the 1920s or 1930s.

"We've tried to do some research, and AI hasn't [even] seen anything like them because they were obviously made to destroy on Christmas morning," he said.

"So it is really a little window into time, and it's just a fascinating thing.

"All we know is we think they're great. They're beautiful, but we haven't got a clue what we think they're worth. They're worth what anybody's prepared to pay."

Potters is holding the sale on Thursday at its auction rooms in Messingham, North Lincolnshire.

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