London: More than 100 rare Titanic items, including a menu from the ship's first-class restaurant, have fetched several hundred thousand pounds at an auction in the UK, over a century after the ocean liner sank.
The menu sold for 60,000 pounds and a small locker key went for 62,000 pounds at the sale organised by Henry Aldridge & Son Auctioneers in Devizes, Wiltshire.
"The auction exceeded our expectations. The over 100 rare Titanic items have fetched several hundred thousand pounds," Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said, without giving out the exact figure fetched by the items. Aldridge said the sale attracted interest from bidders across the world.
"The menu, a deck plan and a locker key attracted intense bidding. Interest in Titanic items goes on unabated," he said. "There was competition for the rarest pieces as people want to own the best items... The items have some amazing stories behind them," he added. The menu was part of the Lurette Collection -- a series of items once owned by maid Elise Lurette -- which sold for a total of 100,000 pounds.
French-born Lurette was one of about 700 people who survived when the passenger liner hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage on April 14, 1912, killing more than 1,500 people. In her coat pocket was a menu, dated April 12, listing foods such as mutton chops, Melton Mowbray pie and tapioca pudding.
A deck plan used by Lurette to help find her way to a lifeboat was sold for 33,000 pounds, almost double its guide price. A letter by engineer Joseph Bell describing how the Titanic almost hit two other liners as it left Southampton docks sold for 24,000 pounds and a tiny locker key owned by Southampton man Sidney Sedunary fetched 62,000 pounds.
Sedunary's body was later recovered and his possessions, including his pocket watch and keys to his cabin -- number 45 on E deck -- were sent to his pregnant wife Madge.
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