Berthe Mayne’s Gold Locket

As the 2024 Titanic expedition maps the Titanic and her debris field, Encyclopedia Titanica, in partnership with RMS Titanic inc., shares some of the more unusual items recovered over the years and asks can you help fill in some missing details?

For each item, we will share images from the RMS Titanic archive, the location where the item was found, and what descriptions we have.

Gold locket with two unidentified photographs

This object was found tucked inside a small Taffeta bag in 2000.

The bag contained a leather wallet, and tucked inside the leather wallet was found a gold locket featuring two photograph portraits of a man and a woman.

RMS Titanic was able to identify Berthe Mayne as the likely owner of the bag because the wallet also had a receipt from a Casino in Nice, France signed by ‘Mayne Villiers.’ Berthe DeVilliers her stage name, and the name that her ticket on Titanic was booked under.

Bertha Mayne — **Berthe Mayne**
(Photo: Alan Hustak)

Berthe was a cabaret singer from Brussell, she travelled with her lover Quigg Baxter under the pseudonym Mrs de Villiers. Read more about Berthe and Quigg.

Locket — **The locket has a gold border and decorative clasp**
(Photo: RMS Titanic inc.)

Loction where the locket was found — **Sonar view of the debris field shows the location where the locket was found in relation to the two main parts of the *Titanic's* wreck.**
(Photo: RMS Titanic inc.)

Enhanced image

Enhanced images of the two photographs, could they perhaps be Berthe's parents?
(Photo: RMS Titanic inc.)

Could the two photographs be Berthe Mayne's parents? For now, this remains a mystery, but with improved technology, we may be able to see the images more clearly, and photos of her mother and father may emerge with which to compare likenesses. We have adjusted the contrast on the images to highlight the portraits more clearly.

Locket Reverse — **The reverse of one of the photographs has some writing which is hard to decipher.**
(Photo: RMS Titanic inc.)

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Look out for more hidden treasures from the archives coming soon!

Comment and discuss

Arun Vajpey

Very interesting. If ownership is confirmed, will the finders try to locate her descendants and return the locket to them? Of course, Berthe Mayne never married but must have had relatives in Belgium or elsewhere.
Thomas Krom

A few days I did research into her, and found out she did have a nephew. So there certainly are still relatives about.
robert warren

Very eerie how it was found way outside the traditional debris field perimeters. Makes one wonder about other items that drifted further away from the wreck that are waiting to be found -if ever.
David Huffaker

There is a fairly extensive Mayne Family History tree at the Geneanet Community. The only nephew listed is Benjamin Ghislain Mayne, son of her brother Ghislain Joseph Mayne, who was born in 1897 and I believe is the nephew referred to as he lived near Bertha. I have not been able to determine if he had any children. They nearly all ended up in Brussels, where there are really good records.