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1639

Titanic Deck Chair

Currency:USD Category:Artifacts / Shipwreck Artifacts Start Price:NA Estimated At:NA
Titanic Deck Chair

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Auction Date:2012 Apr 26 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Exceedingly rare original Titanic deck chair, measuring approximately 37.75 x 22.5 x 54, one of only seven still known to exist. The chair displays expected wear, and its caned seat is mostly present although a center portion is broken with some loss of cane (this could have occurred on impact with the water but is more likely the result of use since the time of recovery). There is some evidence of minor repairs throughout consistent with the entry in the Mackay-Bennett’s logbook relating to repairs made by a carpenter. The headrest supports a metal name holder on the right which is empty, and on the lower portion of the chair is imprinted, “Made By R. Holman & Co. Boston Mass. USA.” This chair was exhibited in the United States in the late 90s and has essentially been out of public view since that time. The lot is accompanied by a detailed letter of authenticity from renowned Titanic author, curator and deck chair authority Steve Santini.

Titanic baker Charles Joughin claimed to have thrown at least 50 deck chairs into the water to act as flotation devices. Many more must have been strewn about as the ship slipped beneath the waves. Frederick Hamilton, a crewman aboard the body recovery vessel, Mackay-Bennett, recorded in his personal diary on April 21, 1912, that “The ocean is strewn with a litter of woodwork, chairs, and bodies.” The official logbook of the Mackay-Bennett records the recovery of multiple deck chairs from the Titanic wreckage over a period of several days, as well as their repair by the ship’s carpenter, suggesting that some of them were intended to be made functional again.

Deck chairs aboard the great liners represented the epitome of luxury and opulence. Passengers would often relax against a cooling ocean spray, sometimes covered with a blanket while attended to by the ever present, and attentive, deck stewards. On Titanic, first and second class passengers had the opportunity to reserve their chairs for the voyage, upon which a name card would be inserted into a special metal frame affixed for this purpose to some of the chairs, such as the chair offered here. Although the deck chairs were made of wood (teak, beech or ash), usually with caned seats, they were amazingly comfortable. Designed to a full body length with a headboard and foot rest, some of Titanic’s deck chairs ultimately made their way to porches in Nova Scotia homes where they were brought ashore by the body recovery ships, providing an unexpected amenity to average income families against the backdrop of the terrible tragedy which made their availability possible.

The deck chairs used by White Star Line, Titanic’s parent company, came in different styles and configurations, all of which were unique to that line. They were generally interchangeable between the company’s ships but, in some respects, were also unique to certain vessels. For example, most of the chairs made for White Star had stars carved into their headrests. Titanic was the one known exception as some of its deck chairs, while similar in every other respect to other chairs in use, did not contain a star. This is thought to be attributable to a furniture company in Boston, R. Holman & Co., simply not having the punch tool used to provide the outline for the star, unlike those produced by the British furniture firms under contract to the line. The Holman company existed for a brief period, opening in 1909, and is believed to have manufactured a relatively small run of deck chairs destined for Titanic as there were simply not enough chairs in the line’s existing stores to accommodate that much new deck space! The chair offered here is one of that small run, and is a close match to the Holman chairs prominently pictured in a photo taken on the decks of Titanic on April 11, 1912, in Queenstowne, Ireland.

Today, some 100 years since Titanic’s demise, these graceful chairs have all but disappeared; very few are known to still exist. Deck chairs were designed to be functional as well as aesthetically inviting. That this piece of furniture once graced the decks of R.M.S. Titanic and was perhaps directly associated with some of Titanic’s most famed and influential figures, makes this an iconic piece of history. There is no telling when, if ever, another Titanic deck chair will ever be publicly available.

Provenance: Property of a Private Collector. Oral history of recovery by C.S. Mackay-Bennett. Exhibited at Titanic the Exhibition, Wonders, The Memphis International Cultural Series, a division of the City of Memphis (1997) and at Titanic The Exhibition, Florida International Museum, St. Petersburg (1997-1998). Featured in Titanic the Exhibition, Florida International Museum (Lithograph Publishing Company 1997). Detailed provenance letter, Steve Santini (2012). Note: The chair can be folded for transport or storage.
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