Photo: Henry Aldridge & Son
A gold pocket watch recovered from the body of one of the passengers on the Titanic has sold for £1.78 million (NZ$4.16 million) at auction, breaking the record amount ever paid for Titanic memorabilia.
The 18-carat gold Jules Jurgensen pocket watch belonged to Isidor Straus, the co-founder of the Macy's department store.
Straus and his wife Ida, were among the richest passengers on board the Titanic.
His body was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean days after the ship sank, and his possessions were collected and returned to his family. Mrs Straus' body was never found.
In his possession was the pocket watch that had stopped at 2:20am - the exact time the Titanic sank.
The watch is engraved with the initials IS and has passed through generations of the family since.
Couple featured in movie
In the 1997 film Titanic, James Cameron wrote in the Strauses as the elderly couple holding each other on their bed as the ship sank.
Straus's wife refused a place in a lifeboat on the night of the 1912 disaster, making clear she would rather die by her husband's side.
It is believed Mr Straus refused a place on the lifeboats as he wanted to make sure all women and children were escorted off first.
There is a memorial statue of Isidor and Ida Straus at the intersection of Broadway and West End Avenue in Manhattan.
Also found in his possession was a letter written by his wife on Titanic-headed notepaper to a family friend.
It too was sold at the auction held by Henry Aldridge & Son auctioneers in England, fetching for £100,000 (NZ$233,498).
In the letter, she described the luxury of the then-biggest cruise liner in the world.
"What a ship! So huge and so magnificently appointed," she wrote.
"Our rooms are furnished in the best of taste and most luxurious."
There is also a reference to the incident where the Titanic almost collided with the SS New York, which was moored in Southampton.
"Size seems to bring its troubles," Ms Straus said in the letter, saying her husband witnessed the near-collision with SS New York.
"But the danger was soon averted, and we are now well on our course across the channel to Cherbourg."
Other items that went under the hammer included a Titanic passenger list sold for for £104,000 (NZ$242,838) and a gold medal given to members of the rescue crew, which sold for for £86,000 (NZ$200,000).
- ABC
