London: Two Titanic menus, including one for a meal for first-class passengers on the day the ill-fated ship made its maiden voyage, have sold for a staggering 100,000 pounds at an auction.
One of the menu auctioned was for the meal on the day the ship made its maiden voyage on April 10, 1912.
It was taken as a souvenir by two fishmonger brothers, Richard and Stanley May, who used the Titanic as a way to reach Queenstown, Ireland, and departed the next day.
It was passed down through the family and brought to auction on November 24, where it sold for a record breaking price of 64,000 pounds.
The second menu sold was for a grand lunch held to celebrate the launch of the Titanic, held at noon on May 31, 1911, which went for 36,000 pounds in the same sale, the Daily Mail reported.
Dignitaries indulged in Champagne, foie gras, sole, lamb and roast beef after watching the luxury liner slip into the water for the very first time.
The event was staged by shipbuilders Harland and Wolff at the Grand Central Hotel in Belfast.
Hardly any menus for the lunch survive today and this one was kept by one of the 69 guests who attended the event.
A small enamel steward`s badge that was recovered from the drowned body of a passenger on the Titanic was also sold and went for 36,000 pounds.
The badge was worn by all stewards who worked on the liner and this one displayed the number 74, believed to be the individual number for victim Fredrick Wormald.
The 44-year-old, of Testwood Road, Millbrook, had been wearing his uniform on the night of the disaster and was one of the 1,522 people who died when Titanic sank.
The badge was recovered from his body along with a rusty set of keys that sold for 44,000 pounds.
Andrew Aldridge, of auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Son of Devizes, Wilts, said: "The saleroom was packed and we had interest from all over the world. There was a lot of interest in the menu from April 10 because it was from the ship itself, it went for a record price for a menu from that date."
"People who would have eaten from it would have been the cream of the cream, first class aristocrats and the most A list passengers on the Titanic," he said.
"It would have been their first meal on board the ship just after it set sail, they would have gone to their rooms, dropped off their bags, and gone to the first class restaurant," he added.
PTI
