Is this the oldest Easter egg in existence?

At 63-years-old, Maurice Lucas thinks it might be a contender.

The chocolate treat was bought in Ipswich for his bride-to-be Sylvia for Easter in 1952.

Made by Caley’s, the renowned confectioners of Norwich, it cost Mr Lucas 10 shillings – close to a day’s wages.

“It was one of the first ones made after the war and so she could not bring herself to eat it,” Mr Lucas said.

“She decided to keep it and it’s still here in its wrapping paper today.”

The couple married five years later, had two children and moved house eight times – but all the while, the egg has remained with them. Today it stays in a cupboard in their Martlesham home, just as it was 63 years ago, in a cardboard box and with a tray of unopened sweets beneath it.

“When I tell people about it they don’t believe it,” Mr Lucas said.

“There’s one person who asks Sylvia about the egg every time she sees her.”

“I just wonder if there’s anyone out there who has an older one.”

Mr Lucas, 82, who worked as a boat-builder at Wright and Sons in Ipswich, said he was offered £50 for the egg by a museum in Shropshire, but refused to sell.

He said his wife, 78, still treasured it as a keepsake from their early days together.

Theirs is a relationship founded on delicious treats.

They first met when Mr Lucas asked Mrs Lucas for a chip outside The Right Plaice fish and chip shop in Wherstead Road.

“I’ve been paying for that chip ever since,” Mr Lucas added.

But the one thing he has not had to pay for since, is Easter eggs.

“I just tell her she didn’t eat the last one.”

Do you know of an older Easter egg? Email newsroom@archant.co.uk.