Ninety six years after the fateful night when the world’s worst shipping disaster took place – the sinking of RMS Titanic - Bonhams & Butterfields will auction an original deckchair from the ship at its annual Marine Paintings, Ship Models, Scrimshaw and Ocean Liner Memorabilia Sale at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, Massachusetts, on Sunday, 7 May 2006.


Although hundreds of deckchairs would have been built for first class passengers to use around the Promenade Deck of RMS Titanic, the chair to be sold by Bonhams & Butterfields is one of just six examples left in the world.

The deckchair was removed from the gigantic vessel moments before she set sail from Queenstown, Cork, Ireland by local photographer Thomas Barker – the man who took the only known photograph of Titanic passengers embarking.

The chair was admired by Barker, a senior photographer working at the time for The Cork Examiner (now The Irish Examiner), when visiting aboard the RMS Titanic at Queenstown. Shortly before the ship’s departure Barker asked Titanic officials if he could keep it as a souvenir. Permission was granted. He had hoped to use the deckchair in his garden, but subsequent events changed his mind and he no longer wished to keep it. Barker gave the chair to his housekeeper Mrs O’Brien, whose family eventually brought it to England. A letter of provenance, will be sold with it.

Thomas Barker’s claim to fame was that he was the photographer who took the well-known picture of the Irish passengers waiting to board RMS Titanic in the bow of the paddle tender ‘America’, alongside the railway quay at Cork, Queenstown, Ireland. This image is unique.

The original varnish beech wood framed deckchair has a fold-out foot rest, brass fittings and incised five pointed star on the back of it. Its original cane seat has been replaced since, but Bonhams & Butterfield’s Marine specialists still expect this impressive deckchair to fetch $75,000-100,000 when it is sold on 7 May.

RMS Titanic sank on the night of 14 April 1912 when she hit an iceberg in The Atlantic Ocean. Over 1500 souls perished in the disaster.

Further information and images:
Europe: Josephine Olley on +44 (0)207 468 8229, email:
USA (West Coast): Levi Morgan on +1 414 503 3348, email:
USA (East Coast): Maria Writesel +1 617 269 9980, +1 617 962 6856, email:

Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son and Neale UK. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America and in August 2003, Goodmans, a leading Australian fine art and antiques auctioneer with salerooms in Sydney, joined the Bonhams Group of Companies. Today, Bonhams is the third largest and fastest growing auction house in the world with a global network of offices and regional representatives providing sales advice and valuation services in 20 countries. It offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street, and Knightsbridge, and a further 10 throughout the UK. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston in the USA; and Switzerland, Monaco, and Australia. For a full listing of upcoming sales, plus details of more than 40 Bonhams specialist departments, go to http://www.bonhams.com/ For other press releases, go to www.bonhams.com/press