SEPT. 1 (Reuters) — More than a century after first-class passengers aboard the ill-fated Titanic ate grilled mutton chops and custard pudding in an elaborate dining room, the ship’s last luncheon menu is expected to fetch up to $70,000 in an online auction.
The luxury cruise liner sank in the Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912 after striking an iceberg during its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York
“What makes these relics so collectible is that there is so few of them. Almost everything and almost all the people went down with the ship. So anybody who was rescued could really only take what they had stuffed into their pockets. And for someone to think of having a menu from their last lunch aboard the Titanic and either intentionally or coincidentally put it into their pocket and take with them is unusual. So – also because paper is so fragile to begin with that anything of that nature is going to be very hard to preserve,” said David Lowenherz, owner of Lion Heart Autographs.
Tuesday (September 01) marks 30 years since the wreckage of the ship, which had been dubbed unsinkable, was discovered on the ocean floor by a team of researchers.
The luncheon menu will be auctioned along with a letter written by one of the ship’s survivors and a ticket from the Titanic’s Turkish baths weighing chair, used to measure a person’s weight.
“There have been at least two or three menus from the last menu aboard the Titanic, that’s when this menu was issued. Lunch for April 12 – I’m sorry, lunch for April 14, 1912. And one of them was sold I think maybe about three years ago at an auction in England for I think something in the order of $120,000 (USD). They are very, very rare. The weighing ticket, even though it’s very small and appears to be quite insignificant. There are also only about three or four examples of that known. Again, it’s paper, didn’t survive and so on. And any letter written by one passenger – from one rescued passenger to another rescued passenger contemporaneous to the event is also very, very rare,” Lowenherz explained.
The artifacts are all associated with passengers who survived the sinking of the Titanic on Lifeboat No. 1.
Nicknamed the “money boat,” it became controversial amid accusations that wealthy passengers bribed crew members to row away from the sinking ship before the lifeboat was full. About 1,500 people died during the Titanic’s sinking, and third-class passengers suffered the greatest loss.
The menu was saved by first-class passenger Abraham Lincoln Salomon and is signed on the back by Isaac Gerald Frauenthal, a passenger from New York who likely had eaten lunch with Salomon that day.
Stamped with a date of April 14, 1912 and the White Star Line logo, the menu also included corned beef; mashed, fried and baked jacket potatoes; a buffet of fish, ham and beef; an apple meringue pastry; and a selection of eight cheeses.
Lowenherz expects the buyer to be someone who is passionate about Titanic history.
“I think the typical buyer for something like this is someone who is very passionate about the Titanic and its history. In doing research for these three pieces I found that there are such buyers and collectors throughout the world. Not just in the United States or in England or Ireland, as one would think. But as far as China, the Mideast, Australia, it is a story that grips people’s imaginations regardless of where they are.”
The online auction will take place on September 30 by Invaluable.com and Ebayliveauctions.com.
