Titanic Deck Chair
Description
This is one of only seven fully intact Titanic deck chairs known to exist today.
Immediately after the sinking of the Titanic, the White Star Line chartered several vessels and tasked them with the grim job of recovering the dead. One such ship was the Commercial Cable Co. cable ship Mackay-Bennett, who in addition to locating and recovering 310 of Titanic's unfortunate victims, also returned to port with several pieces of her wreckage including at least fourteen deck chairs found floating at the scene.
At the British inquest, Titanic's Chief Baker Charles Joughin claimed to have thrown at least 50 deck chairs into the water to act as flotation devices, and undoubtedly many more must have been strewn about as the Titanic slipped beneath the waves. Clifford Crease, a crewman aboard the Mackay-Bennett, recorded in his personal diary on April 20th, 1912, that he observed "...lots of wreckage floating about...". A later diary entry by crewman Frederick Hamilton, made on April 21st, 1912, stated that “The ocean is strewn with a litter of woodwork, chairs, and bodies.” The official logbook of the Mackay-Bennett references the recovery of multiple deck chairs over a period of several days, as well as their repair by the ship’s carpenter upon returning to Halifax.
This chair bears the scars of damage suffered that fateful night, as well as evidence of cable ship repairs performed in order to make it usable once more; likely ending up in a crewman's garden or patio as a poignant reminder of a job out of the ordinary.
Absent the star logo on the headboard, this chair represents one out of a small run of chairs manufactured specifically for Titanic by R. Holman & Co., of Boston. The missing star is thought attributable to the fact that the boutique American manufacturer was not provided with the specialized jig used to incise the headboard, as their contract with the White Star Line was an emergency one-off order executed to quickly fill a shortfall of stock. In a now famous photograph taken of passengers strolling Titanic's boat deck shortly after her arrival at Queenstown, an R. Holman & Co. deck chair, sans star, can be clearly made out amongst several stacked deck chairs.
Meticulously researched and documented, and with the backing of the world's leading Titanic artifact expert, this chair is without a doubt the signature piece of the Titanic Relics collection.
Immediately after the sinking of the Titanic, the White Star Line chartered several vessels and tasked them with the grim job of recovering the dead. One such ship was the Commercial Cable Co. cable ship Mackay-Bennett, who in addition to locating and recovering 310 of Titanic's unfortunate victims, also returned to port with several pieces of her wreckage including at least fourteen deck chairs found floating at the scene.
At the British inquest, Titanic's Chief Baker Charles Joughin claimed to have thrown at least 50 deck chairs into the water to act as flotation devices, and undoubtedly many more must have been strewn about as the Titanic slipped beneath the waves. Clifford Crease, a crewman aboard the Mackay-Bennett, recorded in his personal diary on April 20th, 1912, that he observed "...lots of wreckage floating about...". A later diary entry by crewman Frederick Hamilton, made on April 21st, 1912, stated that “The ocean is strewn with a litter of woodwork, chairs, and bodies.” The official logbook of the Mackay-Bennett references the recovery of multiple deck chairs over a period of several days, as well as their repair by the ship’s carpenter upon returning to Halifax.
This chair bears the scars of damage suffered that fateful night, as well as evidence of cable ship repairs performed in order to make it usable once more; likely ending up in a crewman's garden or patio as a poignant reminder of a job out of the ordinary.
Absent the star logo on the headboard, this chair represents one out of a small run of chairs manufactured specifically for Titanic by R. Holman & Co., of Boston. The missing star is thought attributable to the fact that the boutique American manufacturer was not provided with the specialized jig used to incise the headboard, as their contract with the White Star Line was an emergency one-off order executed to quickly fill a shortfall of stock. In a now famous photograph taken of passengers strolling Titanic's boat deck shortly after her arrival at Queenstown, an R. Holman & Co. deck chair, sans star, can be clearly made out amongst several stacked deck chairs.
Meticulously researched and documented, and with the backing of the world's leading Titanic artifact expert, this chair is without a doubt the signature piece of the Titanic Relics collection.
Creator
R. Holman & Co.
Boston, Massachusetts
United States
Boston, Massachusetts
United States
Medium
Beech, cane, and brass
Provenance
Ex-private C.A. collection.
Ex-private U.S. collection.
Ex-Titanic Concepts, Inc. / Steve Santini collection.
Ex-private U.S. collection.
Ex-Titanic Concepts, Inc. / Steve Santini collection.
Citation
R. Holman & Co.
Boston, Massachusetts
United States, “Titanic Deck Chair,” TitanicRelics.com | A Collection of Authentic Titanic Artifacts and Memorabilia, accessed April 29, 2024, http://www.titanicrelics.com/items/show/38.