Love Story Survives Titanic And Helps Make History at Auction
- Editor OGN Daily
- 18 minutes ago
- 2 min read
A gold pocket watch has sold for a record-breaking amount at auction, becoming the highest price ever paid for Titanic memorabilia.
Part of the reason why it achieved the record was due to the heart-warming story that accompanied the auction lot. The 18-carat Jules Jurgensen watch once belonged to first-class passenger Isidor Straus and was and given to him for his 43rd birthday in 1888 - the same year he became a partner in New York’s iconic department store Macy’s - and was recovered from his body after the ship tragically sank on its maiden voyage in April 1912.
On the night the "unsinkable" ship hit an iceberg, Straus - now aged 67 - was offered a seat on a lifeboat but he insisted that other men go first. His wife, Ida, refused to leave his side. They were among the very few first-class passengers to perish in the disaster that claimed 1,500 lives. Film buffs may recall the couple from the 1997 Titanic movie when they were played by Lew Palter and Elsa Raven and refused to separate in their final moments. On the actual fateful night, they were last seen by witnesses arm in arm on the deck of the sinking ship.
The watch remained in the Straus family for more than a century before being sold last week for £1.78 million ($2.32 million) in the British town of Devizes.
The auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: “The world-record price illustrates the enduring interest in the Titanic story. Every man, woman and child passenger or crew had a story to tell and they are told 113 years later through the memorabilia. The Strauses were the ultimate love story, Ida refusing to leave her husband of 41 years as the Titanic sank, and this world-record price is testament to the respect that they are held in.”
The previous record sale of an item related to the Titanic was achieved last year when a different gold pocket watch, which was presented to the captain of a ship that rescued more than 700 passengers from the liner, was sold for £1.56m.