LOCKS of Queen Victoria’s hair stuck in an album of keepsakes have triggered an extraordinary bidding war between would-be members of the Royal Family who want to conduct a DNA analysis of the monarch’s follicles.

The 20-page album, compiled by the Queen’s German nanny, Baroness Louise Leh- zen, was put up for auction in Bamberg, Germany, and was bought by a mystery Austrian bidder for €70,000 (£49,000).

“The bidder believes she is related (to the Royal Family) through the German side of the Windsors,” said auctioneer Johan Seboek. “She was not interested in any of the other items on sale, just the hair.”

Others in the crowded auction room included a woman seeking to prove her connection to the Romanovs, the Russian Royal Family. She was trying unsuccessfully to strike a deal allowing her to buy one of Victoria’s hairs for €1,500.

Advances in DNA testing have accelerated the process and made it inexpensive for members of the public with an interest in tracing their parentage. In Britain, companies offer DNA testing for a fee. About three hairs are needed to demonstrate a person’s genetic make-up. After the sale Siegfried Hirsch, the antiquarian bookseller who owns the album, lodged a protest. The album, which he had acquired from a descendant of the b aroness, was offered only on condition that it remained intact, to ensure that a future purchaser does not exploit it for its valuable genetic material.

The baroness’s scrapbook is a touching compilation of an old woman’s memories, including fabric from Victoria’s wedding dress (with orange blossom attached), photographs of the Queen’s children, sketches by the young Queen and letters from visitors to Balmoral passing on good wishes from her former employer.

Baroness Lehzen cared for the then Princess Victoria from the age of five until early adulthood and was the Queen’s most trusted companion. It was the baroness who encouraged Victoria to write a diary and who kept it from her mother.

One bunch of hair is marked: “Queen Victoria’s hair (while it was kept short in childhood)”. Three slender samples, also from her early youth, are tied with a pink thread. About a dozen hairs tied to a piece of notepaper are from Queen Victoria as a baby. The thickest locket has been combed out by a servant. The latest batch is affixed to the Queen’s writing paper with a red silk ribbon: she was 23 at the time, 1842, and had already been on the throne for five years.

For DNA scouts Queen Victoria’s hair is a valued prize. She was the grandmother or great-grandmother of most of the crowned heads of Europe. Most of her nine children married into the royal houses of Europe. Anyone claiming to be descended from the Romanov family — murdered after the Bolshevik Revolution — could use the Victorian DNA to support the claim. Tsar Nicholas II was married to one of Victoria’s grand-daughters. There is also a strong internet trade in DNA-bearing material from people who believe they are the illegitimate offspring of royalty.

Baroness Lehzen, a pastor’s daughter from Coburg, was edged out of court after Prince Albert married Victoria. The Prince Consort was irritated by the baroness’s power and engineered her retirement.

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