Titanic letters up for auction

NEW YORK, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Two rare letters from first-class passengers aboard the doomed British ocean liner Titanic will hit the auction block next month, an auction house said Tuesday.

The letters on White Star Lines stationery are expected to fetch $10,000-$20,000 each when auctioned Jan. 16 at Spink Smythe in New York. There also will be online bidding, the auction house said in a news release.

"Letters from passengers aboard Titanic are extremely rare, and are among the most prized artifacts from the disaster," said Robert Litzenberger of Spink Smythe.

The Titanic sank April 14, 1912, when it stuck an iceberg in the North Atlantic while en route to New York on its first voyage. The letters were mailed from Southhampton, England, just prior to the ship's departure.

In one, English pharmacy company executive Adolphe Saalfeld wrote his wife that he had started to explore the ship and liked his accommodations. He also noted he was "the first man to write a letter on board, they are still busy to finish the last touches onboard."

Saalfeld survived the sinking and died in England in 1926.

The second letter was written by Canadian department store sales manager George Graham of Harriston to a business colleague in Berlin. Graham did not survive.

Also to be auctioned are an autographed photo of U.S. inventor Thomas A. Edison, a letter by then President-elect Thomas Jefferson about arrangements for hiring slaves and a promissory note signed three separate times by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1927.