Henry Aldridge & Son

The Devizes Auctioneers

Titanic Lifejacket sold for £43500 by Devizes Auctioneers

Post Sale Press Release For Henry Aldridge and Son’s September 2006 Titanic and Collectors Auctions.

September 2006 was a very satisfying month for Henry Aldridge and Son, the Devizes auctioneers. The first sale of September was an auction of Selected Antiques and Collectors Items. A packed saleroom witnessed some fascinating lots going under the hammer. These were led in price by a 3.6 ct Diamond Solitaire Ring which sold to a local buyer for £12800. Other interesting lots included an early letter from JRR. Tolkien written to a fan after the success of the Lord of the Rings, this sold for £1500.  The joy of these auctions is their diversity, with lots ranging from Dinky Toys to Georgian furniture to Longcase Clocks.

The second sale of September witnessed another world record high for an item of Titanic memorabilia. Worldwide press coverage in the lead up to the sale ensured a very high turnout with the auctioneers having to send a lorry out three hours before the sale to hire more another 50 chairs due to the larger than expected crowd.

The star of the sale was a lifejacket from the Titanic. It is one of only a handful of examples worldwide and was picked up by the Mackay Bennett, a vessel chartered by the White Star Line in the days after the disaster in April 1912.  The lifejacket has been on display in a number of museums in North America since the 1970’s. More recently it has been on show in the Wonders Exhibition in Memphis and at Titanic Ship of Dreams in Orlando, Florida. There were several telephone lines booked to bid on this lot and it sold to a Wiltshire Collector for a record price of £43500. Several overseas collectors asked to be on the telephone line for the whole auction, this resulted in prices that were on average 20% higher than the corresponding sale in September 2005. An eight page letter from First Class Passenger Edward Colley  featured on the front cover of the catalogue. This coverage resulted in an overseas collector paying £18000, just above the mid estimate. The added interest to this letter was that Colley was mentioned several times in the manuscript that realized £48000 in Henry Aldridge’s April 30^th Titanic sale.

“They also have a restaurant where you can [pay for meals if you get bored with the ordinary grub. Our most distinguished passengers seem to be W. T. Stead, W. W. Astor [sic], Chas. M. Hays and E. P. Colley. Oh, and the Countess of something, but her blood is only black blue (give me good red corpuscles; I seem to know more about them. And they circulate faster. We nearly had a collision to start with”

Arguably one of the most historically important items in the sale was a unique telegram sent to Congressman J.A. Hughes on April 15^th 1912 from the White Star Line, the owners of Titanic.. What made this telegram so controversial was the content, it reads “Titanic proceeding to Halifax, will probably land Wednesday all safe” but dated April 15^th 1912, a day after the collision with the iceberg. This telegram was used at the American Enquiry into the disaster and led to rumours circulating within the US Government at the time that the White Star delayed releasing the news of the disaster so they were able to reinsure the ship minimizing their losses. Congressman Hughes’s daughter was a passenger onboard, she was rescued but her husband was lost.  This artifact was one of the few surviving exhibits from that section of the enquiry and still carried its original exhibit number. There was a fierce bidding war between two telephone buyers, which resulted in the successful purchaser paying £10000 for the privilege of owning this stunning piece of history.

There is always a premium for written material from onboard the ship and a letter from Second Class Passenger James Hocking proved no exception. Its condition kept its value down to a certain degree but the last sentence of the text captured the imagination of several collectors and it sold to a telephone bidder for just above top estimate at £12500. Mr Hocking was one of the 1503 souls that lost their lives in the cold waters of the North Atlantic. He writes “Everybody tells me I will not regret the step I have taken so buck up and we shant be long”

Other highlights from the auction included a previously unpublished photograph of Titanic which sold to a collector for £7000, a small table made from wreckwood picked up by the Mackay Bennet £7000, a pre maiden voyage Titanic/Olympic calendar £5000 and an unusual letter card on Titanic stationary written by a non sailing day visitor £8000.  A remarkable 96% of the lots were sold, making this a very satisfying auction and reinforcing Henry Aldridge and Son’s position as the leading auctioneer of Titanic and White Star Material Worldwide.

Contact the auctioneers on +44 1380 729199 or visit www.henry-aldridge.co.uk for qualified, confidential and professional advice regarding any item relating to Titanic, White Star Line, Cunard or Ocean Liner Memorabilia. Entries are now being accepted for the April 21^st 2007. This sale will be on exhibition at Titanic Made in Belfast 2007, at Belfast City Hall from the 7^th-14^th April.