19 April,2010 11:07 AM IST | | Agencies
A letter from a first-class passenger on board the ill-fated Titanic has been sold for 55,000 pounds at an auction
It fetched a record price for a piece of written correspondence from the ship.u00a0
The letter, written on three sides of stationery, was penned by Adolphe Saafeld to his 'wifey'.u00a0
It was sold to an unidentified British museum, which has yet to formally announce its purchase.
The letter was written five days before the ship sank on 15 April, taking 1,517 people with it, and gives an insight into life on the maiden voyage of the Titanic.u00a0
It was one of 350 lots of White Star Line memorabilia sold by Henry Aldridge and Son auctioneers in Devizes, Wiltshire.
"The content is superb. It gives a real first person perspective of what life was like on-board, through the eyes of a first-class passenger, right down to the food, the size of the cabin and the decoration," the Telegraph quoted Andrew Aldridge from the auction house as saying.u00a0
He said it was the best letter of its kind, due to its depth of detail.
Another star of the sale was a set of keys belonging to an officer transferred from the Titanic at the last minute, which fetched 54,000 pounds.u00a0
A set of photographs relating to the Titanic, her passengers and crew were sold to various collectors for more than 100,000 pounds.u00a0
One picture, of Rosa Abbott, who was pulled from the water after the ship sank, fetched 35,000 poundsand was bought by a private collector.
