Scissors sold for €7,000

A pair of 18 carat gold-handled, stainless steel-blade scissors used in the Lusitania launch ceremony on the River Clyde in 1906 fetched £5,000 (€7,000) at a sale of liner memorabilia held by Henry Aldridge & Son in Devizes, Wiltshire, England, on April 18 — double their estimate.

The crossover of the scissors is engraved with ‘John Brown & Co Limited. Clydebank and Sheffield’, while the engraving along the blade says ‘J Rogers & Sons’ and ‘Q.S.S. Lusitania’. The other side bears the Cunard Steamship Company crest.

The scissors were sold along with a black Morocco and gilt presentation box inscribed ‘Souvenir of Launch of Q.S.S. Lusitania Clydebank 7th June 1906’.

Other highlights from the auction included a White Star Line letter requesting the sum of £20 to return the body of Sixth Officer James Moody who was lost in the Titanic sinking, bought by a US collector for £27,000; and a postcard written by third class passenger Ernest Tomlin sold for £6,000 to a collector from Monaco.

The sale also featured a first person account by a passenger on SS Carpathia describing the rescue of Titanic passengers, £9,000; a Titanic survivor’s wedding ring, £6,000; and a key from a Titanic victim, £5,500.

Find more content related to the sinking of RMS Lusitania in our special report