Even before it sank, the RMS Titanic was a symbol of wealth and luxury. Today she remains that way, with many artifacts recovered from the remains of the bidding wars.
On Saturday, a 14-karat gold pocket watch that belonged to the Titanic’s richest passenger was auctioned in Wiltshire, England for £1,175 million (about 2 million Canadian dollars).
The auction house said the watch, engraved with the initials of its former owner, businessman John Jacob Astor IV, fetched the price highest price ever for a piece of Titanic memorabilia. The watch was recovered from Astor’s body days after her death, when the Titanic struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912.
Auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son sold the pocket watch to an anonymous buyer in the United States for £900,000 (more than $1.5 million Canadian), although taxes and fees pushed the purchase past the million-pound mark. .
The watch was originally estimated to sell for between £100,000 (about $171,500 Canadian) and £150,000 (almost $257,300 Canadian).
The inner dial of a gold pocket watch belonging to former Titanic passenger John Jacob Astor, who went down with the ship in 1912.
Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd.
After it was recovered from Astor’s body, the watch was restored and worn by his son Vincent, the auction house revealed.
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Henry Aldridge & Son called the pocket watch “a unique part of Titanic history and one of the most important pieces of horological history associated with the world’s most famous ship.”
Included in the auction lot was a copy of a baptismal certificate belonging to William Dobbyn V, Astor’s executive secretary. Vincent’s signature is on the certificate.
The lot also included a copy of a letter from Astor’s second wife, who was with him on the Titanic, and a photographic copy of Vincent.
John Jacob Astor’s gold pocket watch along with a photograph of his son, Vincent, and a baptismal certificate belonging to William Dobbyn V, Astor’s executive secretary.
Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd.
Who was Juan Jacob Astor?
Astor was an American business magnate, real estate developer, investor, and writer. He is known as the richest passenger on the Titanic and, according to Henry Aldridge & Son, he was thought to be among the richest people in the world in his time.
Astor, who was 47 when he died, boarded the Titanic with his second wife, Madeleine Talmadge Force. He married Force shortly before boarding the doomed ship, when she was just 18, making the couple the subject of scandalous rumors at the time.
Henry Aldridge & Son said Astor helped his wife into lifeboat 4 as the ship was sinking. When he asked to join Force and the other women and children on board, apparently citing Force’s “delicate condition,” an officer denied him entry.
Astor then forcibly threw away his gloves and allegedly smoked a cigarette with author Jacques Futrelle.
The force would survive the sinking of the Titanic.
Astor was murdered and his body was recovered eight days after the sinking of the Titanic. Henry Aldridge & Son said Astor was identified by the monogram sewn onto the lapel of his jacket.
In addition to the pocket watch, gold and diamond cufflinks, a diamond ring, a gold pencil, a wallet, and British and American money were found on Astor’s body.
Astor’s net worth is estimated at approximately $87 million (the equivalent of several billion dollars today), the auction house reported.
About 1,500 people died when the Titanic sank.
Many other Titanic artifacts have also gone under the hammer in recent years, including a skeleton key that passed through four generations of a crew member’s family.
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