A life-jacket belonging to a survivor of the Titanic might be auctioned within the U.K., and is predicted to sell for around 350,000 kilos (C$648,000).
The 114-year-old garment, worn by Laura Mabel Francatelli, was last sold at a Christie’s auction in London, England, in 2007 for 50,000 kilos (C$97,000).
It is going to go up on the market again at Henry Aldridge and Son in Devizes, Wiltshire, in southwest England, on April 18, in memory of the 114th anniversary of the ship’s sinking.
Christie’s Ansie Els models the life preserver worn by Miss Mabel Francatelli, who survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.
Lewis Whyld – PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge told the BBC the life-jacket was an “incredibly iconic and poignant item with a superlative provenance.”
The flotation device was worn by Francatelli, a first-class passenger, before she boarded a lifeboat. She was amongst about 700 individuals who survived the ship’s sinking within the icy cold waters of the Atlantic on April 14, 1912.
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On it are the faded signatures of Francatelli and her fellow survivors.
In November 2025, Henry Aldridge and Son sold an 18-karat gold pocket watch recovered from the body of Isidor Straus, certainly one of the Titanic‘s wealthiest and most high-profile passengers who perished within the disaster, for 1.78 million kilos (C$3.3 million).
In the times following, his body was recovered from the Atlantic and his possessions were logged and returned to his son, Jesse, along together with his other personal items.
Amongst them was his engraved Jules Jurgensen pocket watch, which had stopped at 2:20 a.m., in keeping with the auction house, across the time the Titanic is believed to have sunk.
Other items sold from the Titanic include a gold pocket watch that belonged to the captain of the Carpathia, the ship liable for rescuing greater than 700 Titanic survivors, which sold for 1.56 million euros; the violin played by the Titanic’s bandmaster, Wallace Hartley, because the ship sank, which sold for 1.1 million euros in 2013; and John Jacob Astor’s gold pocket watch, which sold in 2024 for 900,000 euros.
Aldridge and Son Ltd. makes a speciality of selling Titanic memorabilia and collectibles and has handled quite a few sales, including the Titanic violin.
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