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Titanic artifacts : April 2005 Auction of titanic lots
Posted by webmaster on 2004/12/30 23:10:04 (17958 reads)

A full auction organized by Henry Aldridge and Son is going to take place at the British Titanic Society Convention in Soutahmpton on the 8th of April year 2005.


Henry Aldridge & Son said that there would be hundreds of lots offered this time around, possibly making the auction a bigger success than the already succesful auction held by the same house on 18th September 2004 which sold a menu for £51,000.

The auction at Guernseys in Newyork will be shadowed by Henry Aldridge & Son after prooving they could bring enourmous amounts of financials and media attention to the lots offered, this has bought a tremendous amount of trust among auctioneers.

This also means that lots never before seen and auctioneers that never auctioned before would be showing up during this runup period of 4 months as of this writing, as prices of titanic items surge during the past 5 years.

There is some concern and risk that RMS Titanic inc would be allowed to sell its possessions. However for the time being it is bared, efforts by the company hit by financial woes to renegotiate the court order so that it could sell "some" of its items were rejected and reaffirmed the fact that items from RMS Titanic could not be auctioned.

Many beleive that RMS Titanic inc could never be allowed to sell their objects, and while the titanic wreck lying on the ocean bed continues to decay, the prices of auctioned items will ever increase.

However the lots offered at this auction are not yet revealed openly. We hope to bring you this news when it comes out so stay put. At the mean time, our photo gallery depicts some exlusive photos of lots that were auctioned at Henry Aldridge & Son during the September run, Link to images of lots

We hope to see the most respected and wealthy among Titanic society of today at the auction in April 2005.

the previous press release of the September 18'th auction:

Henry Aldridge and Son’s Latest auction of Titanic, White Star Line and Ocean Liner memorabilia on the 18th September was a hard act to follow after the success of April’s auction at the British Titanic Society Convention. Since the drama of Harold Lowe’s menu from the first meal on board Titanic selling for a world record £51000 attracted coverage around the world.



The lead up to the auction saw over 3000 pre sale promotional leaflets sent to Titanic collectors worldwide as well as television, newspaper and radio coverage from around the world making a wonderful showcase for the lots on offer. This showed the allure and magic of Titanic is as strong as ever to both the mass media and general public at large. National Television coverage from the BBC and Channel Four in the UK to NBC and CBS in the States and newspaper coverage all through Europe, South Africa, India and Australia.



Henry Aldridge and Son’s purpose designed auction rooms in Devizes, Wiltshire was packed to capacity with over 200 people present at the auction having travelled from all over the United Kingdom and Europe with telephone lines booked from America, South Africa and Russia



The most valuable lot in the sale was a truly fascinating second-class passenger list. This took exactly the same form as most other White Star Passenger Lists of the time until you opened the pages to reveal SS Titanic from Southampton and Cherbourg via New York, Wednesday April 10th 1912. The list showed Titanic, Olympic’s and Oceanic’s proposed schedule for 1912, for instance the final trip of the year was to have been on Saturday December 28th from New York leaving at noon. Historically the most fascinating facet regarding the list without doubt is the inclusion of a number of names who never actually travelled on the Maiden Voyage. This could have been because the list would have been printed a fortnight or so prior to departure and by that time some passengers would have cancelled or changed their travel arrangements. It is also interesting to note as the passengers were listed alphabetically in the booklet there are numerous gaps between the names, where tickets had yet to be allocated or sold indicating that this was one of the first editions of the list to be printed. To understand just how rare this item was, one noted collector commented he had been looking for an example such as this to buy and had waited over 30 years for the opportunity. Naturally with this in mind competition was intense between collectors based both in the UK, Russia and USA. The bidding came down to several telephone lines and a collector bidding in the saleroom. An English collector was successful and paid just over £25000 to secure the lot. The passenger list together with a Titanic plan of accommodation, a cutaway promotional booklet for Titanic and Olympic and a advertising flyer for Titanic were consigned for the auction by a gentleman from the UK who had heard about Henry Aldridge and Son’s record breaking exploits in April. The gentleman’s grandfather worked for the line from before the Great War until the 1930’s. These documents were found amongst his belongings in the vendor’s father’s attic. The owner remembers playing with his grandfathers uniform as a boy but leaving the group of old papers alone because naturally to a young boy they were rather boring. Needless to say the uniform is damaged beyond recognition and its value is reduced to next to nothing but the paperwork, passenger list etc were left in pristine order.



The promotional flyer was another one of those one in a lifetime items. Again from an historical standpoint it was without peer. It showed a list of 1st Class Passenger Rates for all accommodation and on the reverse a selection of illustrations from Titanic with notes to passengers with special attention paid to Mr Gatti’s A’la Carte Restaurant. Although the document was in two pieces, the bottom section had been split from the top, it realised over £7500 to a telephone bidder to a telephone bidder from the USA.



The Austin Partner collection was one of the most complete archives of material to come onto the market since the John Gill collection at Henry Aldridge’s sale of 2002. The main difference being the Gill archive contained items after the disaster and the Partner collection was letters and memorabilia from Mr Partner’s life prior to boarding the ship, culminating in the most valuable and important aspects which were a letter written onboard Titanic, complete with its envelope and a gold collar stud. Austin was a stockbroker by trade and travelled a great deal between Britain and North America, as a consequence he used the Great Liners quite frequently. There were letters in the archive from his travels onboard both Lusitania and Mauretania. Ironically he preferred the Lusitania to the Titanic, he thought the cabins were more generous!



The transcript of the letter in its entirety makes fascinating reading and gives a good insight into the mindset of a successful businessman of the time and a Titanic Passenger:



MY DARLING WIFE



JUST A LINE TO YOU WHILE I FEEL PERFECTLY FIT TO WRITE TO THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR LOVING LETTER WHICH I RECEIVED ON THE SHIP TODAY.



I WAS SO SORRY TO LEAVE YOU THIS MORNING, MORE SO THAN EVER I THINK BUT IT CAN’T BE HELPED & I AM ONLY LOOKING FORWARD TO THE TIME WHEN I COME BACK, WE WILL HAVE A GOOD SUMMER TOGETHER. AND I DO SO HOPE YOU WILL GO AWAY TO SWITZERLAND. YOU NEED NOT SPARE TO TAKE A NICE HOLIDAY, NOW DO GO DEARIE I SHALL FEEL HAPPY IF YOU DO.



LET ME KNOW IF YOU DECIDE TO GO TRY LUNNS & THE FCTG AND SEE IF YOU CAN’T GET AN EXCURSION WITH THEM, BUT IN ANY CASE DO GO, NEVER MIND THE EXPENSE I CAN WELL AFFORD IT.



WITH FONDEST LOVE TO YOU & ALL FROM



YOUR AFFEC HUSBAND



AUSTIN.

DID YOU OR THE BOYS SEE US GO PAST THE NAB & UP SPITHEAD THIS AFTn ABOUT 2.30 TO 3? I SAW SELSEY PLAINLY 7 THE HIGH HOUSE ALSO CHR CATHL, BOW HILL, STOKE CLUMP & TRUNDLE, GAVE ME SUCH A “PIP”.

I HAVE GOT A MOST COMFORTABLE ROOM & AND THE SHIP IS QUITE THE MOST LUXURIOUS I HAVE BEEN ON, I HOPE SHE WILL GET THERE QUICKLY. WE NEARLY COLLIDED WITH A LINER COMING OUT OF SOUTHAMPTON – THE NEW YORK. SHE WAS MOORED CLOSE TO WHERE WE PASSED 7 BROKE AWAY FROM HER MOORING, WAS ONLY ABOUT 3 FT OFF US SUCH A SHAVE I WAS AFRAID WE SHOULD HAVE TO GO BACK WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN MADDENING.



Of course had the delay that Austin found so annoying been a little more severe, he would have lived. The letter sold to a telephone bidder for £18000 and the gold collar stud that was recovered from his body sold for over £5000. But there was something for collectors of all financial means with a letter written onboard the Lusitania selling for £400. A postscript to this collection is due to the publicity gained from the sale, the watch that was recovered from Austin’s body frozen in time and other items will be entered into the April sale.



Another lot that caused great interest from Titanic historians was written by Joseph Cannon who was the radio operator onboard the SS Birma, one of the first ships to hear Titanic’s CQD message. It was penned on the 20th April 1912 and over four pages gave an incredible insight into what happened that fateful night from the perspective of Mr Canon, to quote from the letter “Of course you have heard of the Titanic. We went to her aid, she was only 100 miles away when I heard her distress call”. The letter sold to a private collector for £2600.



These sales do not revolve solely around the most expensive and rare lots, there was something for everyone with items estimated from £10 upwards. A good selection of White Star Line Plate and Ceramics was sold including an unusual set of three graduated Losol ware Pitchers that realised £1600, together with autographs, White Star Line Paperwork, memorabilia and photos from Olympic and Britannic, Normandie, Lusitania and Mauretania.



Henry Aldridge and Son are holding their next auction of Titanic and Ocean liner memorabilia at the British Titanic Society Convention in April 2005, entries are now being invited. There are over 180 lots consigned so far including a unique blueprint from Titanic showing her plumbing and heating system, which is to be sold via direct descent for Harland and Wolff’s leading draughtsman Mr William Wilson. Contact the auctioneers on 0044 1380 729199 or visit www.henry-aldridge.co.uk for qualified and professional advice

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