(Photo : COURTESY HENRY ALDRIDGE & SON)
The exquisite historic side and the Titanic ship legacy became fire again as a gold pocket watch which was worn by John Jacob Astor, the richest man onboard of the abused Titanic, sold for a mind-blowing £1.175 million ($1.471 million) in an auction. This lot was auctioned off by Henry Aldridge & Son in Devizes, England, eventually reaching a record-breaking price: the sum paid was the highest ever seen for a Titanic artifact.
John Jacob Astor who was the Peak of the industry was persistently clutching a vast fortune which he accumulated through furs which drowned when the Titanic sunk in the Atlantic in 1912. This contrast is demonstrated by the calm attitude and disbelief in imminent danger from the part of the dying rich man which sounds as a testimony of his social status, although he has become prey to the same fate as all the others. Serving as a Companion to his newly married wife, Madeleine, Astor took his place into the Lifeboat number four at the scene sight, waving farewell while smoking a cigarette. His body with his treasure-a 14-carat gold Waltham pocket watch engraved by his first name-was found seven days later, a chilling reality of the ship that, once regarded as unsinkable, was powerless before the devastating odds.
Symbolism of the Relic
In fact, Tomas's watch is of the whole different value. First of all, it's a fantastic relic. It symbolizes the memory of a person who saved a lot of people's lives. From Vinnie to William Dobbyn, who was on his dad's side, the watch continually tells letters about the great time that patch the story of the Titanic remains the ingrained curiosity of people.
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The Significance of the Auction
The auction raised the bar of its precedents, and the Titanic's artifacts became even more impressive due to the significance they were imbued with. Surpassing the previous benchmark set by a violin that serenaded passengers as the ship met its watery grave, the sale of Astor's watch encapsulates the enduring allure of Titanic memorabilia. Although the violin case, offered beside the watch, was estimated at a considerable sum of £360,000 who still finds the Titanic stories fascinating.
Andrew Aldridge, the auctioneer, has eloquently summarized this enduring appeal. These artifacts symbolize, more than anything, the infinite nature of all that went on then, throughout Titanic's historical narrative. "112 years later, the Titanic is not only prominently present in our culture but it remains a focal point of discussion for its passengers, crew, and ship." Aldridge exclaimed. "The Titanic movie is a big ship crash into an iceberg with many people die, but that is not the disaster according to my story. More than 2,200 people in the Titanic had their own stories, not 1,200 subplots, every man and woman have their own. From now the memorabilia functions for those stories."
Inevitably, each artifact, the pocket watch versus the violin, reinforces the message of unreliability of life and of the loss stories associated with the sinking of the Titanic. Amongst them, these relics would be able to exchange among hands and new homes in this way, they preserve the story of the Titanic for people from the past and present as its tale of tragedy and heroism remains in the history book.
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