London  - A pair of Queen Victoria's hand-stitched silk stockings - embellished with the royal crest - were sold for 8,000 pounds (14,300 dollars) at auction in Britain Wednesday.

The black and white stockings, with a two-tone silk finish, were believed to have been worn by Queen Victoria in the 1870s, Charles Hanson of Hanson's Auctioneers said.

Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901.

The stockings were bought by Briton David Alcock for a Framework Knitters' Museum in Nottingham, central England, where they will be exhibited.

Alcock, 52, beat off worldwide competition for the stockings, which had been expected to fetch no more than 200 pounds. "I am over the moon," he said afterwards.

As bids rose above 5,000 pounds there were gasps of disbelief from collectors who had gathered for the auction at a hotel near the town of Derby in central England.

Mary Youings, an 82-year-old former teacher who had kept the royal stockings in her loft for many years, said she did not know under what circumstances her late mother gained possession of the precious item around 1910.

In July, Youings sold a pair of Queen Victoria's bloomers at auction for 4,500 pounds.