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The auction of Titanic, White Star, Transport and Icons of the 20th Century at Henry Aldridge & Son on April 18 includes this 18ct gold and mother of pearl pocket knife given to First Class bedroom steward Henry Etches by naval architect Thomas Andrews as the ship was sinking.
The damage to the knife (one blade is broken and the mother of pearl is cracked) is understood to have occurred as Etches completed tasks while the ship was sinking. He survived the disaster as one of 42 people on lifeboat 5.
Andrews, in charge of the plans for the Olympic class ocean liners, perished along with along with more than 1500 others.
The story of the knife was passed to his brother, the vendor’s grandfather and has remained in the Etches family since. A two-page letter of provenance accompanies the lot that has a guide of £30,000-50,000 in this Devizes, Wiltshire, auction.