Gold watch owned by unsung hero of Titanic disaster set to fetch £100,000
A gold pocket watch could fetch up to £100,000 when it goes under the hammer later this month.
Owned by a man named John Richardson, his description as an unsung hero of the Titanic disaster is helping towards the hefty estimate.
Selling in Penshurst later this month, the watch was awarded to Richardson in 1912 thanking him for his work as engineer of a steamship responsible for saving more than 700 titanic passengers.
Commenting on the story behind the lot, Justin Matthews, director of Hansons Auctioneers, told the BBC: “It is spine-tingling to know the watch’s connection to one of the most famous and tragic events of the 20th Century.
“They turned it from a transatlantic passenger ship into a high-speed rescue vessel under emergency conditions. Their skill, endurance, and judgment directly translated into lives saved.”
Scottish-born Richardson, then aged 26, was one of several engineers honoured with an 18-carat timepiece by the Liverpool-based Carpathia Engineers’ Presentation Fund at a ceremony months after the incident.
The watch was then in the Richardson family before it was offered for sale in 2003, having also been on public display at a Southampton Maritime Museum exhibition in 1992 to mark the 80th anniversary of the Titanic sinking.
Hansons Auctions will sell the lot in its Kent saleroom on April 22nd.
Phillips’ New York auction recently released its top lots for its June sale. Read more on that HERE:
