R.M.S. TITANIC: R.M.S. TITANIC: Superb studio photograph of...

Hammer

£700

R.M.S. TITANIC:

R.M.S. TITANIC: Superb studio photograph of Second-Class passenger Leopold Weisz. In September 1911 he crossed the Atlantic on the Lusitania. He found work in Montreal carving the frieze for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts at 1379 Sherbrooke St. W., then was contracted by Edward Wren to carve the stone shields representing Canada's nine provinces which decorate the Dominion Express Building at 201 St. Jacques St. W. Both examples of his work still remain. Montreal was in the middle of a building boom in 1912 and Weisz decided "Quebec was the place to make money from art." He went back to England to fetch his wife. (He did not plan to return to Bromsgrove, but to set up business in Canada with Mr Wren.) The couple were to have returned on the Lusitania, but because of the coal strike, were transferred to Titanic. They booked their berths in March 1912 with Messrs Houlden Bros and Son and boarded the Titanic at Southampton (ticket number 228414, £26). Before they boarded, Mr Weisz sewed his life savings, about $15,000 worth of gold, into the lining of his coat. On the night of the sinking he went for a walk on deck while his wife took part in the impromtu hymn sing in the Second-Class Dining Room. Mrs Weisz sang the Irish melody The Last Rose of Summer and thought that her rendition had "met with great success." After the recital, she joined her husband on deck, but the temperature had dropped to -1°c. They shivered, and as they headed inside, Mrs Weisz told her husband she felt "strange." "I guess we're in the ice," he replied. They had just returned to their cabin at 11:40 p.m. when they felt a tremor. Mrs Weisz survived. Her husband did not. Mrs Weisz was in danger of being deported back to England as an indigent -- until her husband's body was recovered (#293) and the gold sewn inside his coat returned to her. 10cm x 14cm.