Life-jacket from Titanic survivor to be auctioned, expected to fetch $648K – National

A life-jacket belonging to a survivor of the Titanic will be auctioned in the U.K., and is expected to sell for around 350,000 pounds (C$648,000).

The 114-year-old garment, worn by Laura Mabel Francatelli, was last sold at a Christie’s auction in London, England, in 2007 for 50,000 pounds (C$97,000).

It will go up for sale again at Henry Aldridge and Son in Devizes, Wiltshire, in southwest England, on April 18, in memory of the 114th anniversary of the ship’s sinking.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge told the BBC the life-jacket was an “incredibly iconic and poignant item with a superlative provenance.”

The flotation device was worn by Francatelli, a first-class passenger, before she boarded a lifeboat. She was among about 700 people who survived the ship’s sinking in the icy cold waters of the Atlantic on April 14, 1912.

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On it are the faded signatures of Francatelli and her fellow survivors.

In November 2025, Henry Aldridge and Son sold an 18-karat gold pocket watch recovered from the body of Isidor Straus, one of the Titanic‘s wealthiest and most high-profile passengers who perished in the disaster, for 1.78 million pounds (C$3.3 million).

In the days following, his body was recovered from the Atlantic and his possessions were logged and returned to his son, Jesse, along with his other personal items.

Among them was his engraved Jules Jurgensen pocket watch, which had stopped at 2:20 a.m., according to the auction house, around the time the Titanic is believed to have sunk.

Other items sold from the Titanic include a gold pocket watch that belonged to the captain of the Carpathia, the ship responsible for rescuing more than 700 Titanic survivors, which sold for 1.56 million euros; the violin played by the Titanic’s bandmaster, Wallace Hartley, as the ship sank, which sold for 1.1 million euros in 2013; and John Jacob Astor’s gold pocket watch, which sold in 2024 for 900,000 euros.

Aldridge and Son Ltd. specializes in selling Titanic memorabilia and collectibles and has handled numerous sales, including the Titanic violin.

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