Gold watch belonging to captain who rescued 700 Titanic survivors sells for £1.56 MILLION – in record-breaking sum

A GOLD pouch ticker that erstwhile belonged to a skipper who saved 700 passengers from the ill-fated Titanic has sold for an eye-watering amount.

The stunning 18-carat Tiffany & Co clip portion sold for a record-breaking £1.56 million.

It was the highest magnitude ever paid for Titanic memorabilia, auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Son, of Devizes, Wiltshire, said connected Saturday, and went to a backstage collector successful the US.

The timepiece was presented to the skipper of the RMS Carpathia, Arthur Rostron, who famously helped rescue survivors from the freezing North Atlantic Ocean.

The stunning ticker was fixed to him by Mrs Astor and 2 different widows of high-profile and affluent businessmen, who were besides mislaid erstwhile the vas sank.

Mrs Astor was onboard the doomed vessel with her husband, John Jacob Astor, of the famed New York Astor family.

Mr Astor was 47 erstwhile helium went down with the vessel successful 1912, aft seeing his caller woman Madeleine connected to a lifeboat.

The timepiece bears an inscription speechmaking "Presented to Captain Rostron with the heartfelt gratitude and appreciation of 3 survivors of the Titanic April 15th 1912 Mrs John B Thayer, Mrs John Jacob Astor and Mrs George D Widener".

Captain Rostron received the acquisition from Mr Astor's woman astatine a luncheon astatine the family's mansion connected Fifth Avenue, New York, according to the auction house.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: "It was presented principally successful gratitude for Rostron's bravery successful redeeming those lives, due to the fact that without Mr Rostron, those 700 radical wouldn't person made it."

Mr Aldridge said the merchantability demonstrated the "enduring fascination" with the communicative of the Titanic.

The erstwhile grounds was acceptable successful April when different golden pouch watch, recovered from the assemblage of Mr Astor, sold for £1.175 cardinal astatine the aforesaid auction house.

Both merchantability figures see fees and taxes paid by the buyer, the auctioneers said.

Astor's 14 carat golden Waltham pouch watch, inscribed with his initials, was fixed to John's lad Vincent, who took the ticker to beryllium repaired it earlier wearing it himself until 1935.

He past passed it down to his godson, William Dobbyn.

The golden ticker was acquired from the Dobbyn household by the backstage collector of Titanic memorabilia successful the 1990s.

Since past it has been displayed astatine assorted museums including the National Geographic Exhibition successful Washington DC and Titanic Museum ‘The World's Largest Titanic Attraction' successful Missouri, US.

Mr Aldridge said that portion historians were funny successful the nuts and bolts of Titanic, it was antithetic for collectors.

He said: "For collectors, it's a antithetic animal, they are funny successful people.

"Every man, pistillate and kid had a communicative to tell, and those stories are told implicit a period aboriginal done the memorabilia."

The violin that was played arsenic the vessel sank held the grounds for the highest magnitude paid for Titanic artefacts for 11 years, aft being sold for £1.1 cardinal successful 2013, the auctioneers said.

Mr Aldridge said the information that this grounds has been breached doubly successful the past twelvemonth illustrated that determination is an "ever-decreasing proviso and an ever-increasing demand" for memorabilia related to the ship.

Prices for the artefacts are going up "exponentially", helium said.

The 2 pouch watchers aren't the lone titanic memorabilia to spell up for sale.

A rusty locker cardinal from the unlucky vessel sold astatine auction for a staggering £85,000.

The cardinal which opened a beingness overgarment cupboard was 1 of much than 250 items from the perished vessel sold successful Devizes successful Wiltshire and was 1 of the biggest involving Titanic memorabilia.

The cardinal was utilized by 23-year-old Sidney Sedunary from Southampton who was moving connected committee the vessel arsenic a steward and it helped prevention lives as the liner sank connected its maiden voyage successful 1912.

Meanwhile, a violin linked to Titanic set person Wallace Hartley was discovered wrong an attic.

The nonmigratory obtained the spot from their precocious mother, who held onto a invaluable instrumentality with a tragic past.