A pocket watch that belonged to the richest passenger aboard the Titanic is up for auction and could sell for up to 150,000 pounds, or almost $190,000.
The auction of John Jacob Astor IV’s 14-carat gold Waltham pocket watch begins on Saturday with a starting bid of £60,000, according to the auction house Henry Aldridge and son. The watch, engraved with the initials JJA, was found along with Astor’s body when her remains were recovered several days after the sinking of the Titanic. He was also found with a diamond ring, gold and diamond cufflinks, £225 in English notes and $2,440.
“Astor is known as the richest passenger aboard the RMS Titanic and at the time was thought to be among the richest people in the world, with a net worth of approximately $87 million (equivalent to several billion dollars today). ),” states the auction house. wrote.
Astor was on the Titanic with his wife, Madeleine. The business magnate, in his 40s, had married the 18-year-old on September 11, 1911, according to the auction house. The newlyweds spent a long honeymoon in Europe and Egypt while they waited for rumors about their marriage to die down. They were heading back to the United States when the Titanic struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912.
According to the auction house, Astor asked if he could accompany his wife in a lifeboat, citing her “delicate condition.” After being told that he had to wait until all the women and children were gone, Astor lit a cigarette and tossed his gloves to his wife. He went smoking with author Jacques Futrelle, who also died when the Titanic sank. They were among the more than 1,500 who died.
Astor’s body (and his watch) were recovered by the steamer CS McKay-Bennett on 22 April. His wife survived.
“The watch itself was completely restored after being returned to Colonel Astor’s family and worn by his son, making it a unique part of Titanic history and one of the most important pieces of horological history. related to the most famous ship in the world,” the auction house said.
The sale of the pocket watch comes as other items from the infamous shipwreck have also hit the auction block, most recently a photograph taken on April 16, 1912, apparently showing the iceberg that doomed the ship.
In November, a weird menu from the TitanicThe first class restaurant. sold at auction along with a pocket watch from another man who died in the 1912 disaster. The menu sold for about $101,600. He Pocket Watchrecovered from Russian immigrant Sinai Kantor, it sold for about $118,700.
Before his death, Astor was a business magnate, real estate developer, investor, writer and lieutenant colonel in the Spanish-American War, according to the auction house. He founded the st regis hotel in New York City, which still stands. Astor is also credited with inventing an early form of air conditioning by blowing cold air through vents in the hotel walls.
He was the great-grandson of Juan Jacobo Astor, a fur trader who died in 1948 as one of the richest men in the United States, according to the Library of Congress. In his 2023 book “Astor: The rise and fall of an American fortune,Anderson Cooper and co-author historian Katherine Howe described how the family made their fortune.