“They reflect not only the importance of the artefacts themselves and their rarity but they also show the enduring appeal and fascination with the Titanic story – 112 years later, we are still talking about the ship and the passengers and the crew”.

“The thing with the Titanic story, it’s effectively a large ship hits an iceberg with a tragic loss of life, but more importantly is 2,200 stories. 2,200 subplots, every man, woman and child had a story to tell and then the memorabilia tells those stories today.”

A prominent member of the wealthy Astor family, John Astor was last seen ‘smoking a cigarette and chatting with a fellow passenger’ before the ill-fated ship went down. His body was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean seven days later and his 14-carat gold Waltham pocket watch, engraved JJA, was found.

“Astor is well known as the richest passenger [on] board the RMS Titanic and was thought to be among the richest people in the world at that time, with a net worth of roughly $87m – equivalent to several billion dollars today”.

At 11.40pm on 14 April 1912, the Titanic hit an iceberg and started to take on water. At first, Astor did not believe the ship was in any serious danger, but later it was apparent she was sinking and the captain had started an evacuation after midnight, so he helped his wife into lifeboat 4.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd (@henryaldridgeauctioneers)