Eye-watering price tag for "remarkable" first class Titanic menu
A first class dinner menu from the Titanic has been found and sold at an auction in England for £84,000 (around $162,000 AUD) on November 11.
The water-stained menu was dated April 11, 1912 just three days before the ship hit an iceberg, ultimately meeting it's ill-fated end causing over 1500 deaths.
Wealthy passengers at the time were spoiled with choice, with oysters, salmon, beef, squab (baby pigeon), spring lamb among other dishes on the menu, and that's not including dessert.
Auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son said it was unclear how the menu made it off the ship intact, but the slight water damage suggests that it was recovered from the body of a victim.
The rare artefact, which is over 111 years old belonged to amateur historian Len Stephenson, from Nova Scotia, Canada, who passed away in 2017.
No one knew he had it, including his family, who only discovered it after going through his belongings following his death.
“About six months ago his daughter and his son-in-law, Allen, felt the time was right to go through his belongings,” auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said.
“As they did they found this menu in an old photo album.
“Len was a very well thought-of historian in Nova Scotia which has strong connections with the Titanic. The body recovery ships were from Nova Scotia and so all the victims were taken back there.
“Sadly, Len has taken the secret of how he acquired this menu to the grave with him.”
Stephenson worked at a post office and would talk to people, collect old pictures and write letters for them, which might be how he got the rare artefact.
According to the auctioneer, no other first class dinner menus dated April 11, 1912 have been recovered from the titanic making this “a remarkable survivor from the most famous Ocean liner of all time”.
“There are a handful of April 14 menus in existence but you just don’t see menus from April 11. Most of them would have gone down with the ship,” Aldridge said.
“Whereas with April 14 menus, passengers would have still had them in their coat and jacket pockets from earlier on that fateful night and still had them when they were taken off the ship," he added.
A few other items recovered from the Titanic were also sold, including a Swiss-made pocket watch recovered from passenger Sinai Kantor which fetched £97,000 (around $187,000 AUD).
A tartan-patterned deck blanket, which was likely used during the rescue operation also sold for £96,000 (around $185,000).
Images: Henry Aldridge & Son of Devizes, Wiltshire