A gold pocket watch belonging to a man who died on the Titanic when the ship sank has sold for a record sum, The Guardian reports.
The watch, which belonged to 67-year-old Isidor Straus, has sold at auction for £1.78 million, the highest price ever paid for a Titanic item. The watch, an 18-carat Jules Jurgensen engraved watch, was given to Strauss for his 43rd birthday in 1888.
The previous record for a Titanic item was set last year, when another gold pocket watch, given to the captain of the ship who saved more than 700 passengers from the Titanic, sold for £1.56 million.
Among the few first-class passengers who perished
Strauss was born to a Jewish family in Otterberg, Bavaria, in 1845, and emigrated with his family to the United States in 1854. There he made a name for himself and became a partner in Macy’s department store in New York City. Straus and his wife Ida were among the more than 1,500 passengers who lost their lives when the Titanic sank in 1912, and were among the few first-class passengers to die in the tragedy.
As the ship began to sink, the couple reportedly headed for the lifeboats, where they were offered seats because of their age, but Straus refused to take a seat ahead of the other men. Ida refused to leave him, and they were last seen alive sitting on the deck, side by side, facing their fate.
The couple were featured in James Cameron’s 1997 epic Titanic, where they are shown lying in a loving embrace as their cabin fills with water. His watch was later recovered from the wreck and returned to the Straus family.
The ultimate love story
The watch was one of several Titanic-related items being sold at the Henry Aldridge & Son auction in Devizes, Wiltshire, this weekend. Other items included a letter written by Ida Straus on Titanic paper, which sold for £100,000, a Titanic passenger list, which sold for £104,000, and a gold medal awarded to the crew of the RMS Carpathia by survivors, which sold for £86,000. The total value of the Titanic memorabilia auction reached £3 million. Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said:
“The world record price illustrates the enduring interest in the story of the Titanic. Every man, woman and child, passenger or crew member had a story to tell, and 113 years later, they are told through memorabilia.”
The Strauss were the ultimate love story – Ida refused to leave her husband for 41 years as the Titanic sank, and this world record price is testament to the esteem in which they are held.”
