What is the value of a royal selfie moment?

We appreciate the convenience and speed offered by technology, but the slower pace of life had its share of romance, in every sense of the term. While today selfies clicked, stored and disseminated via smartphones are the favoured mode of chronicling personal milestones, it is doubtful that years later they will offer the same value, historical and pecuniary, as less ephemeral mementoes. After all, when smartphone becomes obsolete, its information will largely be inaccessible.

And even if images are somehow retrieved, they are unlikely to have the cachet of the diamond-encrusted locket bearing the miniature image of King George IV that belonged to his lifelong love and secret wife, a highlight of Christie’s London auction this July.

His love life has uncanny parallels with that of his direct descendant, Prince Charles. But the latter has only photographs and embarrassing recordings of his relationship with his current wife Camilla, while his forebear’s convention-defyinglove is enshrined in a timeless pair of lockets.

The one with his image is up for sale, but Maria Fitzherbert’s portrait was always carried by George IV and was buried with him. A Christie’s official has very aptly likened it to him having a picture of a woman not his wife as his screensaver. Would Charles-Camilla smartphone selfies find a comparable market?