A rare black and white photograph in a glazed oak frame recently sold for £360 pounds ($374 USD) reports Deccan Chronicle. The photograph was bought by a collector at an auction for £20. It was estimated to be auctioned off for £200 and was purchased by an anonymous bidder.
Source: Rare Titanic Photograph Fetches 360 pounds at UK Auction(Deccan Chronicle, 19 Feb 2017)
A locker key found on the body of Titanic steward Sidney Sedunary was auctioned off on Saturday for $104,000 reports Fox News. The key was sold by auctioneer Henry Aldridge & Son.
Source: Locker key from the Titanic sells at auction for $104,000 (Fox News,23 Oct 2016)
*Fox News reports that a rare Titanic key with a brass tag stamped “Locker 14 D Deck” is up for sale. It was found in the body of Titanic Third Class Steward Sidney Sedunary. A direct descendant of Sedunary has put it up for auction with well known Titanic memorabilia auctioneer Henry Aldridge & Son. It is valued at somewhere between $36,640-$61.070. It will be auctioned off on 22 Oct 2016.
*Premier Exhibitions has inked a deal with Infinity Filmed Entertainment Group and Partners in Motion to allow them exclusive access to Titanic artifacts for a new television series. The series titled Titanic: Stories from the Deep will explore the stories behind the artifacts. The series is expected to move into production in 2017. (Titanic Artifacts To Be Examined In New Series, TVReal.ws 14Oct2016)
*I never knew there were people that collected mourning covers sent via the mail. There were many printed after the Titanic disaster for people to mail to friends or others indicating their sadness at the tragedy. A writer for Linn’s Stamp News looked recently at two such but unmailed covers. What caught his attention was not the cover itself (which he said was typical of the period)but the words inside:
“She struck where the white and fleecy waves,
Looked soft as carded wool,
But the cruel rocks, they gored her side,
Like the horns of an angry bull.
Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice,
With the masts went by the board,
Like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank,
Ho! Ho! The breakers roared.”
(Titanic Memorabilia Goes Beyond Mailed Covers,Linn’s Stamp News,7 Oct 2016)
A rare Titanic menu was auctioned off this last weekend (the same
auction where the Titanic telegram failed to sell)for an astounding
$118,750. From finebooksmagazine.com:
The remarkable Titanic final dinner menu is signed by first class
passengers Edward P. Calderhead of New York City; Spencer V. Silverthorne of St. Louis; George E. Graham, a sales manager from
Winnipeg, Canada; James R. McGough, a buyer from Philadelphia; and JohnIrwin Flynn of Brooklyn, and is one of three pieces of memorabilia relating to the sinking offered in the auction. An oil painting of the iceberg by rescue ship passenger Laura Wilson Luce of Titusville, Pennsylvania sold for $12,500 and a menu from the R.M.S. Carpathia, the ship which first reached the Titanic following the sinking, sold for $3,125.
Source:Titanic’s Last Menu Tops $1.1+ Million Americana Auction atHeritage Auctions(finebooksmagazine.com,11 Nov 2015)
The BBC is reporting that the Titanic Lunch Menu was auctioned off today for £58,000 ($87,723).
Source: Last Titanic lunch menu sells for £58k at auction(30 Sep 2015, BBC News)
A couple of rare Titanic items are up for auction:a ticket from the Turkish bath, a lunch menu, and a letter written six months after the disaster by Lady Duff Gordon’s secretary. The auction for these items is at Lion Heart Autographs in New York on 30 September. Bids are being accepted online.
Here is an article from National Geographic about the auction and its historic value:
A Look at the Titanic Artifacts Going to Auction This Week (29 Sep 2015, National Geographic)
The shipping label for a parcel addressed to Marconi operator on Titanic has been sold at auction for £3,000($4,587). It was sold to an Internet bidder from the UK.
Source:Titanic Marconi Parcel Label Auctioned For £3,100(30 May 2015,BBC)
A few days ago I reported on the upcoming auction of a shipping label from a package sent to the Marconi wireless operator on Titanic. A group called the Old Moulsham and Central Community Trust is seeking to purchase the label to show a link between Chelmsford Marconi factory and Titanic. They are currently trying to raise money from benefactors to make this possible.
The auctioneer is John Nicholson of Fernhurst, West Sussex, UK. The starting bid is £500 ($775) and will auctioned off on 30 May 2015.
Source: Bid To Bring Titanic Parcel Label Back To Chelmsford Marconi Factory(29 May 2015,Essex Chronicle)
We have had postcards, letters and even a rare violin come up for auction. Now we have a shipping label from a parcel addressed to “Marconi Operator, RMS Titanic” now up for auction. What the parcel contained is unknown or what happened to the box. According to BBC News, the mother of the current owner got it from Olympic’s first officer who was a friend of hers. She passed away in 1972.
The auctioneer is John Nicholson of Fernhurst, West Sussex, UK. The starting bid is £500 ($775) and will auctioned off on 30 May 2015.
Source: Titanic Parcel Label To Be Auctioned(22 May 2015,BBC)
1. Looking through old engineering journals that have accounts of Titanic’s construction can sometimes be interesting as Jamie Condliffe at Gizmondo learned. Bill Hammack reviews what he found when he looked through The Engineer between 1909 and 1911.
Source:Fascinating Engineering Details of the Titanic From a 1909 Journal (11 Feb 2015,Gizmodo)
2. Looking through old footage in The Netherlands found something surprising for doctoral student Jeff Nichols at University of Illinois at Chicago. He found rare news clips in Dutch newsreels that showed the SS Eastland disaster of 1915 in the Chicago river. The SS Eastland was one of five boats that was to take Western Electric workers and their families to a park in Michigan City, Indiana. It had 2,5oo people aboard when it turned on its side while docked killed 844 people. The film clips shows a rescue attempt and later an attempt to right the ship. The film clips are now available at Eastlanddisaster.org.
Source: Chicago’s Titanic: Lost Footage Of 100-Year-Old Ship Disaster Discovered(10 Feb 2015,The Guardian)
3.A watercolor paintingof the Titanic by Arthur Knowles–cousin of Titanic bandleader Wallace Hartley–will be auctioned off at Halls on 18 March 2015. Expected selling price is £500 (about $762 USD).
Source: Poignant Titanic Painting Goes Up For Auction In Shrewsbury(6 Feb 2015,Shropshire Star)
