"An Item Never to Be Seen Again"... Lemon Appears at Auction, Surpassing Expected Winning Bid

Lemon Found Inside 19th Century Cabinet
Discolored but Preserved Without Rot... Sold for 2.4 Million Won

A 285-year-old lemon has gone up for auction at a British auction house, attracting attention. The lemon was found to be unspoiled and was sold for a high price of about 2.4 million KRW.

A 285-year-old lemon up for auction.
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On the 7th (local time), local media reported that 'Bretels Auctioneers and Valuers,' an auction company located in Newport, auctioned off a 285-year-old lemon on January 16th for $1,800 (approximately 2.4 million KRW). The lemon was discovered in a cabinet made in the 19th century, and the cabinet that stored the lemon was also auctioned but sold for a relatively low price of $40 (about 43,000 KRW).

The unusual point was that despite the long passage of time, the lemon had not decayed. The lemon’s peel had turned dark brown due to exposure to air, but no particularly rotten or damaged areas were found. The lemon peel was inscribed with the phrase, "To Miss Baxter from Pee Lou Franchini on November 4, 1739." Local media speculated that before lemons were cultivated in the UK, this lemon was brought from India as a gift, and a man named Pee Lou Franchini gave it to Miss Baxter as a romantic gesture.

Auctioneer David Bretel said, "We estimated the lemon’s expected price to be between 40 and 60 pounds (about 67,000 KRW to 100,000 KRW) just for fun." The lemon was ultimately sold for more than 20 times the auctioneer’s estimated price. Bretel added, "We will probably never see an item like this at auction again."

Meanwhile, this is not the first time that aged food or groceries have been auctioned in the UK. In August 2017, a piece of wedding cake used at the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton on April 29, 2011, was auctioned, drawing attention. The cake piece was given as a gift to one of the wedding guests, who had kept it frozen until putting it up for auction. The estimated auction price was $1,000 to $1,550 (about 1.12 to 1.74 million KRW). At that time, experts asserted that fruit cake can still be eaten even after its expiration date. They advised that although old fruit cakes contain a very small amount of moisture, there are no bacteria, so it poses no health risk.