Chocs away
Girl’s unopened Easter egg from 1939 is predicted to fetch £500 at auction
AN Easter egg that was given to a girl 85 years ago and has remained unopened ever since could fetch £500 at auction.
Sybil Cook was nine when she got the treat in 1939, but despite being a big fan of chocolate she decided not to tuck in because of some advice from her uncle.
With the Second World War close on the horizon, he told her to take her time eating it in case chocolate became scarce.
Sybil certainly took the advice on board – looking after the egg until her death aged 91 in 2021, when she passed it on to her daughter Gill Bolter.
The Mary, Mary Quite Contrary-themed Easter egg is wrapped in the original blue paper. The box, which has a decorative garden scene of a girl doll with a watering can. still bears the name “Sybil Cook” and “1939”, written in pencil.
Gill, 62, said: “Mum loved life and chocolate.
“In 1939, with war looming, her uncle said, ‘You be careful with that, my girl, there might not be any chocolate around soon’.
“He told her to ration it. Amazingly, she was so disciplined and respectful to her elders she never ate a single piece.
“She told us having kept it throughout the war it didn’t seem right to eat it. “She scratched a bit of the paper off the front when she was little, just to check there was chocolate behind it. “Having kept it safe through her childhood, she took it with her when she left home to get married in 1955. For 60 years she had it on a shelf in her bedroom. “The egg then ended up in a cupboard in my bedroom.” She said her mum, from Neath, South Wales, loved antiques shows and would have been thrilled by the auction. Gill added: “It would be lovely if the egg went to a museum.” Hansons Auctioneers, of Etwall, Derbys, is due to sell the item today. The estimate is between £300 and £500.