When life hands you a lemon – especially if it is 285 years old – perhaps the best thing to do is not really to make lemonade.

You can just let it be a lemon, hand it to an auctioneer, and walk away with £1,400 (S$2,400).

A lemon like that was exactly what was discovered hidden in the bottom of a drawer of a 19th-century chest.

The chest was sent to Brettells Auctioneers and Valuers in the West Midlands in England to be auctioned off, by a family who inherited the piece of furniture from a late uncle, various media outlets reported.

The fruit was found when the chest was being photographed ahead of the auction on Jan 16, 2024.

“The lemon arrived in an ordinary, late 19th-century Chinese collectors’ chest. It was right at the back of one of the drawers, so we took it out,” auction house owner David Brettell told the Daily Mail.

It was inscribed with a note that read: “Given By Mr P Lu Franchini Nov 4 1739 to Miss E Baxter”.

“I think it must have been a love token brought back from colonial India,” said Mr Brettell.

He added: “We thought we’d have a bit of fun and put it in the auction with an estimate of £40 to £60.”

But it sold in January for £1,400 following a zesty bidding war. The cabinet? Just £32.

If the deal ever turns sour, it is unlikely that the buyer would be able to claw back their money under the lemon law, for buying something that old and mouldy.

After all, it was, indeed, a lemon.