An evening dinner menu for first class passengers on board the ill-fated Titanic has been sold for £84,000 (over €95,000) at auction, auctioneer Andrew Aldridge announced Sunday.
The menu went under the hammer at the Henry Aldridge & Son auction house in Devizes, Wiltshire (UK) on Saturday.
Over 1,500 passengers and crew perished when the luxury liner hit an iceberg on 14 April 1912 and sank the following day during its journey from Southampton in England to New York City in the United States.
Highlighted on the dinner menu, estimated between £50,000 and £70,000 (between €57,000 and €79,000), were dishes such as oysters, spring lamb with mint sauce and mallard duck in wine sauce, served on the evening of 11 April shortly after the vessel's departure.
Credit: Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd
"Having spoken to the leading collectors of Titanic memorabilia globally and consulted with numerous museums with Titanic collections, we can find no other surviving examples of a first-class 11 April dinner menu," Aldridge explained. "The menu is a remarkable survivor from the most famous ocean liner of all time."
The valuable artefact was discovered in a 1960s photo album following the death of Len Stephenson, a keen historian from Nova Scotia in eastern Canada.
Other Titanic-related items were also offered during this sale: second-class passenger Sinai Kantor's Swiss-made pocket watch sold for £97,000 (around €110,600), while a first-class tartan-patterned deck blanket, which was likely used during the rescue of passengers, fetched £96,000 (around €109,500).
