An 86-year-old Easter egg engagement gift given to an ‘angel’ by her beau is set to spark auction romance.
The immaculate Little Miss Muffet Pascalls’ Chocolate Easter egg still boasts its original rose gold paper and blue bow. It was given by Jack Carter to his 17-year-old sweetheart Joyce Angell when they became engaged on April 16, 1938.
Jack, who said he’d married an angel due to Joyce’s maiden name, wanted to give her something special to mark their big day. At the time, with World War Two looming, luxury chocolate was such an extravagance Joyce could not bring herself to eat it. Plus the romance of the present made her want to treasure it forever.
When Joyce died, aged 84, in 2004 she had kept her engagement gift for 66 years. When Jack passed away in 2012, three weeks short of his 96th birthday, the chocolate egg was still in his care. Together they had looked after it for 76 years.
The gift is wreathed in romance, according to Hansons Auctioneers, which will offer the vintage find (lot 3098) on March 19 guided at £100-£150.
Jack gave the chocolate to Joyce on her older sister Iris Angell’s wedding day on April 16, 1938. The following year on November 4, 1939 Joyce, then 18, married 22-year-old Jack at The Tabernacle (formerly United Reform Church) in Church Street, Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
The couple, both teenagers when they met at Trowbridge’s United Reform Church in 1934, enjoyed 64 years of happily married life. They had one son and two grandchildren and were fulfilled by a life of giving to others, hard work and simple pleasures. Joyce worked at a cloth factory and both did voluntary work. Both were keen collectors, Joyce of thimbles and Jack of cigarette cards.
In 1989 their 50th wedding anniversary was marked in their local paper. The cutting states that Jack, who worked for Hattersley Heaton engineering for 34 years and served in the Navy during WW2, said he’d ‘married an angel’. The couple put their happy marriage down to love, understanding, caring and faith.
The chocolate egg was inherited by their son, who lives in Warwickshire. He said: “I was born in 1944 and for as long as I can remember the egg had been in a bedroom cupboard in its original packaging, after which we kept it in the coolest cupboard in our home. After 86 years in my family’s care, I feel the time has come to offer it at auction. I hope a collector or museum will preserve it for future generations.”
Hansons said: “This gift demonstrates true romance. A present bought to mark a magical moment a lifetime ago treasured forever. Times were hard in the 1930s and yet Jack splashed out on this Pascalls chocolate because he loved Joyce so much. Pascalls was founded by James Pascall in 1866. He set up a small shop off Oxford Street in London having worked for Cadbury’s.
“This gift was given at a time when people had little and took nothing for granted. Despite years of rationing Joyce never ate a morsel. This chocolate, with its beautiful decorative wrapping, marked one of the happiest days of her life. It has survived as a testament to their love.”
Auction: The chocolate Easter egg, lot 3098, will be offered on March 19, 2024 in Hansons Auctioneers’ March 14-19 Derbyshire Antiques and Collectors Auction.
Catalogue/bidding: www.hansonslive.co.uk or www.the-saleroom.com.
Enquiries: [email protected]
