A gold pocket watch recovered from the body of John Jacob Astor IV, the richest passenger on the RMS Titanic, has sold for a record £1.2 million.
The sale took place at the Henry Aldridge & Son auction house in Devizes, Wiltshire, and represents the highest amount ever paid for objects recovered from the Titanic. The buyer is a private collector from the USA.
John Jacob Astor, a prominent businessman, tragically died when the Titanic sank in 1912. He was last seen helping his wife, Madeleine, into a lifeboat, before choosing to stay on the ship.
Astor was known for his immense wealth, estimated at around 87 million dollars at the time, the equivalent of several billion dollars today. His body was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean seven days after the disaster, and his 14-carat gold Waltham pocket watch, engraved with his initials JJA, was found among his belongings, explains The Guardian.
The sale of Astor's watch surpassed the previous record for Titanic artifacts, which was 1.1 million pounds paid in 2013 for a violin played when the ship sank. The auction also saw the sale of the violin case for 360,000 pounds, including taxes and fees.
Andrew Aldridge, the auctioneer, commented on the significance of the sale, referring to the "enduring appeal and fascination with the Titanic story", which continues to captivate public interest more than a century later. Each piece of Titanic memorabilia helps to tell the personal stories of the 2200 passengers, each with their own narrative of that fateful voyage.
The clock was later passed down from Astor's son Vincent to the son of Astor's executive secretary, illustrating the historical journey of this important artifact before it reached the auction block. This sale not only highlights the continuing interest in the Titanic's history, but also the value placed on tangible pieces linked to the personal stories of its passengers.
