A life jacket worn by a survivor of the Titanic disaster is going on sale Saturday in a first-of-its kind auction over 114 years after the ocean liner sank in the most notorious maritime disaster in history.
The U.K. auction house Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd. says the extraordinarily rare artifact is estimated to sell for 250,000 pounds ($339,000) to 350,000 pounds ($474,000).
The life jacket was worn by Laura Mabel Francatelli, who was traveling in first class on the doomed luxury liner. According to the auction house’s listing, Francatelli was a secretary to fashion designer Lucy Duff Gordon, who was famous for her dress designs in popular London, Paris and New York salons.
Francatelli was on the Titanic with Duff Gordon and her husband, Cosmo Duff Gordon, as they traveled to Chicago.
When the ship sank on April 15, 1912, the Gordons and Francatelli deliberately transferred boats to stay together during the chaotic evacuation. Over 1,500 of the 2,240 people on board the RMS Titanic died.
Francatelli later signed the life jacket, along with other survivors who were on the boat.
Henry Aldridge and Son, the leading auction house for selling Titanic memorabilia, always has an auction around the anniversary.
But Andrew Aldridge, its managing director, told NBC News on Thursday he hasn't seen anything quite like the life jacket.
"It's a truly incredible object," Aldridge said. "You look at it and you know, it sparks emotions."
He added that such an item is "really, really rare."
“This story can be summed up in a sentence: A big ship hits an iceberg and sinks, with a terrible loss of life. But take it a step further, and there are 2,200 chapters in this story, each one a person,” Aldridge said.
"That person’s story represents a chapter. With these items of memorabilia, we are telling those stories," he said. "We are telling the story of Laura Francatelli 114 years after the sinking, and that is why people are fascinated by this subject.”
The life jacket had been seen at the Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and at Titanic Belfast in Northern Ireland. The previous owner has “decided to pass the baton to the next collector.”
