Titanic lifeboat seat cushion to go up for auction

A seat cushion from one of the Titanic's lifeboats is expected to fetch up to £180,000 when it goes up for auction.

The cushion comes complete with the original Titanic lifeboat plaque in the form of a White Star burgee and will go on sale at Henry Aldridge & Son in Devizes Wiltshire, on 18 April.

Made of canvas, the cushion was taken from one of the ship's 13 lifeboats that brought survivors to the rescue ship, SS Carpathia.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge, said: "It's truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a museum or collector."

"It is unparalleled to be offering a fully provenanced item from a Titanic lifeboat complete with lifeboat plaque for auction, it's totally unprecedented," Aldridge said.

"The item can actually be identified on a period photograph of Titanic's Lifeboat 2," Aldridge added.

The cushion was originally bought by the friend of London tea importer Richard William Smith, who drowned on the ship when it hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic on April 14, 1912.

Smith, who was on his way to meet fellow tea importer TG Matthews in Brooklyn, New York, was among the 1,500 who died in the disaster, although his body was never identified.

According to Aldridge, Matthews was so upset by what had happened to his friend he bought the cushion when it was first put up for sale by Meyer-Forest Corporation, a prominent steamship supplies company.

The item was kept in Matthews' office until he passed it onto his grandson, George Matthews Byers in 1926.

The item comes complete with four brass eyelets in tact, and crucially it still has its original lifeboat plaque

The item is being sold alongside an original length of rope from the ship and documents to verify its authenticity.

The item is now being sold by an anonymous owner after Byers sold the item in 1987.

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