Love letter for sale at BTS 2004

[Iain Stuart Yardley]

A letter and two postcards written by second class passenger Frederick Banfield to his wife Cecilia are up for sale on 2nd April. Would these be at BTS 2004, I wonder?

http://www.femail.co.uk/pages/standard/article.html?in_article_id=208697&in_page_id=2

Cheers,

Boz

 

[Geoff Whitfield]

Boz,

Yes, these three Banfield items are to be auctioned at the BTS Convention on Friday 2nd April at the Hilton Hotel, Southampton. There is also an on board menu belonging to Fifth Officer Harold Lowe, dated 2nd April 1912.....estimated to sell for between £32,000 and £36,000. There are other articles relating to Harold Lowe and possessions from 3rd class steward Thomas Mullen - including his steward's badge, plus a first class deck plan, a letter from Chief Engineer Joseph Bell, written on board Titanic and further personal effects from second class passenger John Gill. No doubt there will be several more "last minute" Titanic related items.

Geoff

 

[Iain Stuart Yardley]

Thanks Geoff,

I don't know what I'm doing yet but I hope to be there to see these items "in the flesh", so to speak.

Cheers,

Boz

 

[Inger Sheil]

The Lowe menu is a fantastic item, Boz - if you can make it, you'll be very impressed. The family are retaining more personal items connected with the disaster - from memory, they'll be putting up a memorial card, Geoff? Am very impressed to see a letter from Bell will be coming up as well - he's a figure more deserving of widespread recognition.

 

[Geoff Whitfield]

Hello Ing & Boz,

Yes, there is an In Memoriam card with original White Star Line envelope, the property of Officer Lowe, there are also several other framed cards from the Lowe collection plus a full pack of WSL playing cards which were from his collection also copies of New York newspapers, collected by Lowe whilst waiting for the U.S Senate Inquiry together with a plethora of other Lowe material.

The Bell letter is brief and businesslike and there is excellent material from the John Gill, Frederick Banfield and Thomas Mullin archives.
Around 350 lots so far, but of course, there are always more last minute entries.

Geoff

 

[Inger Sheil]

Great stuff, Geoff - those newspapers are fantastic. Must ask if they're putting the whole collection up - Lowe had scathing things to say about American journalists, but it didn't prevent him from preserving a bundle of American newspapers!

Even a businesslike letter from Bell would be very interesting - anything at all to shed light on him is welcome. The Gill stuff to date has also been something of an auction highlight.

 

[Iain Stuart Yardley]

More family items up for sale, belonging to John and Winnie Gill.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/content_objectid=14053357_method=full_siteid=50143_headline=-LOVE-STORY-OF-TITANIC-2-ON-SALE-name_page.html

Cheers,

Boz

 

[Inger Sheil]

Some nice images online of the auction items:

http://www.henry-aldridge.co.uk/rightframe.htm

On-line Catalogue isn't bad:

http://www.henry-aldridge.co.uk/Catalogues/ss020404/index.htm

Some might recall the Lowe menu featuring in the article that Harold WG Lowe wrote for the Commutator back in 1999.