What’s on the ‘real’ Titanic menu (that’s being sold for $50,000)
It’s been over a century since the Titanic tragically sank —103 years to be exact. And now, we’re being given a more intimate look into the lives of the doomed passengers. A lunch menu (among other artifacts) from the ship is being sold on September 30th in New York City, and it’s expected to go for at least $50,000, according to Lion Heart Autographs, the rare manuscripts dealer that’s handling the sale. The crumpled lunch menu is dated April 14, 1912 — the day before the sinking.
$50,000 may be a lot of money for an old piece of paper that says “corned ox tongue,” but it’s a piece of timeless history from a classically tragic event in world history. According to Lion Heart Autographs owner David Lowenherz, only two or three other menus from the ship’s last lunch are known to exist. . . and he estimates that the menu could sell for up to $70,000.
The menu was saved by Abraham Lincoln Salomon, a passenger on the boat who saved a lunch menu dated April 14, 1912 — the day before the sinking. Salomon was one of the 12 survivors who infamously escaped the sinking by boarding the first lifeboat that’s been infamously dubbed the “money boat” after accusations that the wealthy passengers bribed crew members to row away before the lifeboat was full. The boat could have held 40 people.
As The Guardian notes, though 1,500 people total died from the tragedy, the third-class passengers suffered much more fatalities than the other classes. “This is not an anonymous artifact from an anonymous survivor,” Lowenherz told The Guardian. “There’s such a story behind the history of the boat and the people who were in it and how their lives were affected by the event.”
If you’re a collector of Titanic items, you’ll want to head to New York City on the 30th of this month. Along with the menu, a letter from one of the ship’s survivors is being sold, as well as a ticket from the ship’s Turkish baths weighing chair. The ticket, which is expected to go for $10,000 at auction, has the names of three passengers who accompanied him: Laura Mabel Francatelli, Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, and Lady Lucy Duff-Gordon. The letter, expected to fetch $4,000, is from Francatelli and was sent to Salomon six months after the sinking. It reads:
These artifacts are all absolutely chilling, especially given the nature surrounding the “money boat.” For more information, check out the Lion Heart Autographs website.
(Images via Twitter, Paramount Pictures)
