An authentic menu
The menu for the last lunch served to first-class passengers aboard the Titanic before it sank is on a yellowed paper dated April 14, 1912. This last gastronomic meal was reserved for passengers of the most luxurious class of the ship.
It belonged to first-class passenger Abraham Lincoln Solomon (1868 - 1959), a wholesale papermaker, with offices in New York and Manhattan, residing in Central Park West, Manhattan. Surviving the sinking, he had kept the menu with him while he was able to join lifeboat No. 1.
The document is signed on the back by another first-class passenger, Isaac Gerald Frauenthal (1868 - 1932), a New York lawyer, and a likely lunch companion of Solomon, who also survived the disaster by jumping from the Titanic bridge into Canoe No. 5.
Auctioned on September 30th, the 103-year-old paper was supposed to bring in ?50,000. But that was not counting the sum of 88 000 ? paid by an anonymous buyer. Even if his identity is hidden, he could be a descendant of one of the 700 or so people who survived the Titanic disaster, report the auction houses that orchestrated the sale.
Only three other menus from the Titanic's last lunch are known. One was donated to the Greenwich National Maritime Museum by Walter Lord, the author of "A Night to Remember" and the other was sold for £76,000 (about ?120,000) in 2012.
A second document also belonging to Solomon was sold for $11,000 (?10,000). This is one of the four tickets for the weighing chair of the Turkish baths of the Titanic
A meal as sumptuous as the décor of the boat
Just like the decor, the food served on the Titanic was also sumptuous. Every evening, a bugler called passengers to dinner to the air "The Roast Beef of Old England", a White Star tradition for first-class passengers, whose menu included up to 13 dishes.
The importance given to meals on the Titanic was reflected in the salary of its chef, Charles Proctor, the best-paid crew member after the ship's captain.
The menu for what would be the last lunch on board the ship included: a consommé fermier, a cock-a-leekie (traditional Scottish soup made with leeks and potatoes in chicken broth), brill fillets, Argenteuil egg, Maryland chicken, corned beef, vegetables, meatballs, grilled mutton chops, mashed potatoes, french fries, field dress potatoes, custard pudding, apple mering, baked goods.
Due to the seating arrangements throughout the trip, it is possible that passengers had dinner with the same companions during the trip. It is therefore likely that Frauenthal wrote his name on the back of the menu to give it to Solomon, so that they would keep in touch after their return to New York.
