Rare Titanic menu up for sale in Devizes
4:00pm Wednesday 22nd February 2012 in Latest News
A menu for the last meal served aboard the doomed liner SS Titanic is the star lot in the centenary sale of memorabilia at the Devizes salerooms of Henry Aldridge & Son.
The menu, dated April 14, 1912, the night the liner struck an iceberg and sank, is expected to fetch in excess of £100,000.
The menu was on the table of first-class passenger Dr Washington Dodge, a prominent banker from San Francisco, who was travelling to America with his wife, Ruth, and son, Washington Junior.
Mrs Dodge slipped the menu into her handbag before carrying on with her day, unaware of what was to come.
Mrs Dodge and her son survived the tragedy after being ushered onto a lifeboat and the menu, which had remained in the bag, has stayed with the family ever since.
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge, a recognised authority on the Titanic, said: “The sale, on March 31, will be 100 years to the day after Titanic was finished at Harland & Wolff.
“The star of the auction is one of the rarest items of Titanic memorabilia to be sold in recent years.
“Any menu from the Titanic is highly prized, but collectors will be offered the opportunity of a lifetime when a first-class menu from the last lunch ever held on board the Titanic goes under the auctioneer’s hammer.
“This remarkable relic carries a pre-sale estimate of £60,000 to £100,000.”
For more information, visit www.henry-aldridge.co.uk
