Menu from Titanic up for auction

Artifact from luxury cruise expected to fetch up to $70,000

NEW YORK: More than a century after first-class passengers aboard the ill-fated Titanic ate grilled mutton chops and custard pudding in an elaborate dining room, the ship’s last luncheon menu is expected to fetch up to $70,000 in an online auction, said a curator on Monday.

The luxury cruise liner sank in the Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912 after striking an iceberg during its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York.

The luncheon menu will be auctioned on September 30 by Invaluable, a live online auction house, along with a letter written by one of the ship’s survivors and a ticket from the Titanic’s Turkish baths weighing chair, used to measure a person’s weight.

David Lowenherz, owner of Lion Heart Autographs, the rare manuscripts dealer behind the auction, said only two or three other menus from the ship’s last lunch are known to exist. He estimated the menu at auction would sell for $50,000 to $70,000.

The artifacts are all associated with passengers who survived the sinking of the Titanic on Lifeboat No. 1.

“This is not an anonymous artifact from an anonymous survivor,” Lowenherz said. “There’s a story behind the history of the boat and the people who were in it and how their lives were affected by the event.”

According to Lowenherz the menu was saved by first-class passenger Abraham Lincoln Salomon.

Stamped with a date of April 14, 1912 and the White Star Line logo, the menu also included corned beef; mashed, fried and baked jacket potatoes; a buffet of fish, ham and beef; an apple meringue pastry; and a selection of eight cheeses.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 2^nd,  2015.

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