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Subscribe to RSSLONDON -- A first-class menu from the Titanic's last lunch sold Saturday for 76,000 pounds, about $120,000, the auction house said.
The menu bears the date April 14, the day in 1912 that the reputedly unsinkable ship hit an iceberg and fell to the bottom of the Atlantic. The disaster left 1,500 people dead.
Devizes, England-based auctioneer Henry Aldrige & Son said the menu is one of the "rarest items of Titanic memorabilia to be sold in recent years," adding it made its way off the ship in purse of the wife of prominent San Francisco banker Washington Dodge.
The BBC said that the menu was on the table of first-class passengers and that Dodge's wife, Ruth, had it in her purse when she escaped on a lifeboat with her son.
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Among the 40 options on the historic menu: Chicken a la Maryland and Consomme Fermier.
The BBC said hundreds of items from the ship were auctioned in Wiltshire ahead of the 100th anniversary of the sinking. A set of keys from the ship sold Saturday for 59,000 pounds.
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$120,000 for a piece of 100 year old paper / cardboard?
Guess some don't know what to do with their money. Most likely the same (buyer) is a cheap tipper, or none at all.
Missed that Mega-Millions jackpot too, huh? :D
You've got to spend it on something. You certainly can't take it with you.
Well if they need something to spend it on, I'll gladly volunteer. :D
Crying shame
"You've got to spend it on something. You certainly can't take it with you."
Could have donated it to a charity which feeds 120 third world children well for 3 years, but hey, who wouldn't want to own a 100 year old cardboard of history.
Crying Shame -
I think it would be kind of fun to own - it's a piece of history.
But I would have to be in a position financially, that it would make no difference to what I did to help others.
Phenomenal112 -
Sorry, I have my own country to help out - the U.S.A.
@Inventor101
Lol then feed our 120 homeless children for a year.
Was that the last menu not yet sold or the menu for the last lunch served?
DUMB!
Sorry bout this, but it's a freaking menu on paper.
The person should have donated the mo0ney to a homeless shelter or some organization to help the homeless and needy.
"The person should have donated the mo0ney to a homeless shelter or some organization to help the homeless and needy."
How do you know the buyer of this menu doesn't already donate to what you consider worthy causes?
You obviously know nothing about the value of historical documents...if you did, you would understand why items such as this, Civil War emphemera, land titles, etc., are sought by collectors.
Finally, what business is it of ours what this buyer chooses to spend his/her money on? Do you want someone to define an expenditure you make as 'worthy'?
You people should stop thinking you can tell others what to do with THEIR money. It's THEIRS!! Donate your own money to a cause you think is worthy if you feel so strongly about it. This is what is WRONG with our country right now.
Laura, I agree completely! I am shocked how many people have the audacity to tell this collector how to spend his/her own money. Who made them the discretionary-spending police? A major problem in America are Liberals telling everyone how to spend their own hard-earned money, and I am sick of it. Also, I am by no means wealthy but I donate my time 3 days a week at a local non-profit and donate money when I can, so don't bother calling me names, I put my money where my mouth is.
I think it is really neat to be able to own a tangible piece of history. If I had the money I would collect all sorts of things that I perceive as valuable! I appreciate that this item came from a survivor's purse and not the ship itself, which has been largely stripped. Very cool :)
More money than sense.......
To AmericanHistorian,
AS a liberal, I could care less what these people spend their money on. What I find offensive is that you assume that they worked for this money..."hard earned" are you kidding?.. These people don't know what it is to do an honest day's work...most of them live their lives off of inherited money.
That's why we need an inheritance tax (a real one), otherwise this non-sense goes on forever. Trust fund babies don't spend money on practical things. Just support other babies. While we send our troops out to fight wars at piddling sums to protect the trust fund baby way of life.
Such a foolish statement... your profile photo tells us all we need to know about you.
At least I have an avatar. Whats your excuse? Mommy won't pick one out for you?
You HAVE to be from the GOP side, as most Americans can't /won't spend this kind of money, unless it goes into a conservatory, not a personal smoking room / study.
BTW my avatar sucks, but yours is worse: NOTHING !
Been following the Titanic history for 40+ year's. As I now think of how to respond to a primate that still is dragging it's knuckles, I am looking at a 16x16 plaque about this day in time, and the certified number 2102 of 2203 (the number of people on board). My $$$ went to research and new discovery. This MENU item should be in a conservatory, not a private study / smoking room.
Let's see what else?????????
Commemorative 14K coin: For new expeditions and recovery. The same kind of private funding going on with National Geographic now, but mine is20 year's old.
Actual coal that was brought up from this ship's belly, and the (my) money went to further explorations. Maybe extravagant, but casting(s) from artifacts recovered sit on my wall, like the "Crow's Nest Bell". These items were NOT junk like crap onEbay, but through the same foundation and and backer's who first made the discovery.
I was into the Titanic about 30 years before it was discovered in 1985, and WAYYYY before the movie!
Some salvaged items that were cheap at the time, are now somewhat rare (due to the disaster) and being considered a final resting place. My $$$ and interest ( like others) in the "Woods-Hole" expedition allowed to keep this project going.
When I depart this earth, the Titanic stuff I have is going to museums, as I am not yet done. If I had the $$$ and opportunity to have this "snap shot in time", I would not keep it from the world seeing it.
And John-2006106: I know more about the subject than you have had girl friend's. Picking on ones avatar versus someone with none, tells me that you like to "hit and run".
Your comment to me provoked me to reply, but it's as worrisome as a cloudy day.
Go to bed now, and have Mommy pick you out a nice avatar in the morning.
Also...... Ton's of books out there that go to research and discovery.
This stuff needs to be where people can see it, not tucked away for another 100 year's!
WOW! You are posessed, and probably know every bit of the dialogue from the movie. Get a life!
doem309--Your avatar does NOT suck!!! Alfred E. Newman is a national treasure. "What..me worry?"
tyvm! Part of when life was life.
doem - what makes you think that anyone cares what hangs on your wall or sits on your desk? Didn't your mommy ever tell you that it's not nice to brag about what you have?
History is priceless. Or, well, it's worth at least $120k in this case.
Yes waiter, I'll have the chicken al a Mary..... Did you hear that big scraping noise???
...to go, please and thank you. :))
Waiter, I asked for ice water to drink, not to walk in.
Excuse me, Waiter!!!... Why is my Chicken a la Maryland taking so long, and why are your shoes & pants wet??
"better make that to go"....too funny
thanks, Another 1
A bit of history. I would like to a photo of the menu. Interesting.
Thanks for saying what was on the menu.
I'm betting the sherbet and ice cream weren't popular choices.
You must live in Southern California or Arizona. Here in the rest of the US where we have actual seasons, we eat ice cream year round! YUM!
Very doubtful that the chicken was served on a bed of Iceberg Lettuce. Certainly, the consume was served cold...
Excuse me Spike, but you have me confused in the same category of illiterates like yourself. A good book for you costs $12 bucks, glossy in color, and has "your" fantasy in every month's edition.
Don't SPEW your DNA on it! Might be worth something in the next 100 years.
As far a dialogue goes, you have one scene down and maybe sell to the same publisher's of your favorite monthly for "back round" sounds......................
Palm on Pud
You really need to stop givin a damn what everybody else says. Whether they are right or wrong, I don't care. Oppinions/comments, like @!$%#s, we all have them.
How about a coherent post?
What you typed here would read "twelve dollar bucks" and you called another illiterate? :)
thank you doem309 for your contribution to the preservation of history, it takes money to have a little class sometimes, very few rarely experience on a simple budget....
TexanOne: Thanks for your comment, as I just got into this around 9 years old, and here we are.
Amazing how people have no idea of what a task like this preservation costs, and I have done zero to little, but pitched in where we could. aka: Not rich by any means.
My Titanic things will be going to a public entity, as I /we have had the privilege of one of my 3 children that hawked off other historical items to pay a bill or two.
Don't come to us...... just sell it! This still makes us sick over 10 years later, and he and his wife still won't tell us what it was sold for. ( IN $$$$$ )
I was wondering how they stored food on the Titanic. Did they have Refrigeration at that time or just Ice?
I was also wondering if they brought Livestock on board live?
Does anyone know?
it had refrigeration.
Ah, Haa! Here is the answer.
They used Cold Storage Rooms that had Copper Tubes that circulated Cold Brine Water through them and some how they were able to control the temperature for various foods. Different Rooms for different Temperatures. I still don't know how they cooled the Brine Water though.
http://titanicarchive-online.com/index.php4?page=181
They did have Refrigeration back then.
Thx Joe!
"Waiter, there's a fly in my consume and it's singing 'Nearer My God to Thee'."
It is sad to make jokes about a tragedy, but that really was funny!! Thanks for the chuckle! :)
The article couldn't include a picture of the menu? It was sold at auction, right, not privately?
Is it just the menu or do they actually take you down the Atlantic in the doomed Titanic and serve you the food as well.
Amazing, the comments about money. I wonder why it takes a disaster to remember an event. I wish we could all remember a simple kindness, a smile from a stranger, the man that held the door for someone. This life is not about the money, no matter how much you have, it is yours to spend or not. I wonder, in a hundred years will those people make jokes about September 11, 2001? I hope not. Maybe by then people will have priorities like people first, learn from mistakes, things can be replaced and it's only money.
Why wait 100 years?
“It’s a bird!”
“It’s a plane!”
“It’s…. Oh @!$%#, it IS a plane!”
Do you think more lives were lost in 911 or in the wars that Bush justified after that?
Those are totally crazy people (or are completely insensible and irresponsible).
Just think how many acres can be planted in countries that have nothing to eat, how many wells can be drilled to provide water... How many mouths can be feed! With a menu that serves only for speculations... Too bad that the "savages" capitalists and the "irresponsible" socialists do not think ever on people... and does not curtail those non-sense speculations! Freedom is not libertinism (debauchery)!
If you are a trust fund baby, what else do you spend money on?
How frivolous and stupid to spend money on a menu that hasn't mattered for at least two generations. Out of touch with what's going on in the here and now.
I had heard that the menus were done ahead of time and printed in England. Then stored and used per schedule of meals for the trip across. Must be more out there.
The article is slightly incorrect - the Titanic HIT the iceberg on April 14 - it sank on April 15, at 2:20 am.........
The 100th anniversary is on the same day the Titanic sank this year - does anyone have tickets for the memorial voyages?????
OUGHTA scoop up the menus from the Costa Concordia!
Several years ago, I bought a very interesting book/cookbook: ¨The Last Dinner on the Titanic”. It lists the dinner (not the lunch) menu (with the recipes), and the food offered was unbelievable. Just imagine: First course: Canapes a l’Amiral; oysters a la Russe. Wines: white Bordeaux, white burgundy, Chablis. Second course: Consomme Olga; Cream of Barley Soup. Wines: Madeira or sherry. Third course: Poached Salmon with Mousseline Sauce. Wines: dry Rhine or moselle. Fourth course: Filets Mignons Lili; Chicken Lyonnaise; Vegetable Marrow farci. Wine: red Bordeaux. Fifth course: Lamb with Mint Sauce; Calvados-glazed Roast Duckling with Applesauce; Roast Sirloin of Beef forestiere; Chateau Potatoes; Minted Green Pea Timbales; Creamed Carrots; Boiled rice; Parmentier and Boiled new Potatoes. Wines: red burgundy or Beaujolais. Sixth course: Punch Romaine. Seventh course: Roasted Squab on Wilted Cress. Wine: red burgundy. Eighth course: Asparagus Salad with Champagne Saffron Vinaigrette. Ninth course: Pate de foie Gras; celery. Wines: sauterne or sweet Rhine wine. Tenth course: Waldorf pudding; Chocolate Painted Éclairs with French Vanilla Cream; French Vanilla Ice Cream. Wines: Muscatel, tokay, sauterne. Eleventh course: Assorted fresh fruits and cheeses. Wines: Sweet dessert wines, champagne or sparkling wine. After dinner: Coffee, cigars. Wines: port or cordials. The second-class passengers had a very nice menu, but, of course, not as sumptuous. And the third class had a decent menu for dinner: Vegetable soup; roasted pork with sage and pearl onions; green peas; boiled potatoes; plum pudding with sweet sauce; cabin biscuits; oranges; tea.
The menu that day turned to "may I please have the chicken a la life boat please"?
Didn't seem to have much fish on the menu. Eh, I guess that was the midnight snack.