A life jacket worn by a survivor of the sinking of the Titanic has sold for 670,000 pounds ($906,108) at auction in London.
This is the only Titanic life jacket to be offered at auction since the ship sank 114 years ago, and was sold by Henry Oldridge & Son auction house in Devizes, Wiltshire, to an interested collector.
Laura Mabel Francatelli, one of about 700 survivors of the 1912 disaster, was riding in first class on the Titanic. She donned the jacket before boarding the lifeboat.
Auctioneer Andrew Oldridge said he was “thrilled”, adding that this reflects “the continuing interest and passion for the story of the Titanic, its passengers and crew”.
Oldridge had previously explained that this is “the only surviving jacket to appear at auction in 114 years, making it a once-in-a-lifetime collector’s opportunity.”
Francatelli and a number of other survivors signed the life jacket, which has 12 pockets and is equipped with shoulder pads and side straps.
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The jacket sold for hundreds of thousands of pounds more than initial estimates; It was expected to sell for between 250 and 350 thousand pounds sterling.
A seat cushion from one of the Titanic’s lifeboats also sold for 390,000 pounds ($527,436).
This pillow was originally sold – before going to auction – to Richard’s friend William Smith, the London tea importer who drowned when his ship struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic in 1912.
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Smith was on his way to meet tea importer TJ Matthews in Brooklyn, New York, and was among 1,500 people who died in the disaster, while his body was never identified.
The auction director said that the party that bought the pillow is the Titanic Attraction Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Branson, Missouri, adding that the pillow will be displayed in the museum.
The auction coincided with the city of Southampton commemorating the 114th anniversary of the RMS Titanic disaster in a ceremony held on April 14.
