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Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria’s image was no stranger to advertisers in the 19th century - can anyone enlighten us if her likeness was used for the product mentioned below?

Q This query is on behalf of a member of the Victoria mailing list (on 19th century culture and society) who was asked the question in course of her work.

She writes that she has been asked whether there is “an image of the condoms which, allegedly, bore a picture of Queen Victoria”. She continues, “I have two hypotheses: One, that maybe it was the packaging, rather than the condoms themselves, that bore the Imperial likeness . .The second is that the entire thing is yet another Victorian sex factoid which needs debunking”.

Does anyone collect condom packets and/or seen one with an image of Victoria? Has anyone else ever heard of such a packet?

Malcolm Shifrin