Ear: Watch

Also up for auction at Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd., auctioneers in Devizes, Wiltshire, England, was another piece of Titanic memorabilia, an “extremely rare” 3-inch diameter pocket watch belonging to second-class passenger and 34-year-old furrier Sinai Kantor of Vitebsk, Russia. It was expected to sell for between about $64,000 and $98,200.

Kantor boarded the ship with his wife, Miriam, at Southampton, England, heading for America, where they intended to settle in the Bronx, New York.

He planned to sell trunks full of furs to pay for the couple to study dentistry and medicine. Miriam escaped in Lifeboat No. 12; Sinai died in the sinking in April 1912.

His body (Body No. 283) was retrieved by the ship MacKay-Bennet, embalmed on board and was buried at Mount Zion Cemetery in Queens, New York. His effects were delivered to Miriam on May 24, 1912, and consisted of “his Russian passport, a notebook, money, wallets, a silver watch, a telescope and corkscrew.”

This “important piece of Titanic Judaica,” featuring Hebrew numbers on the face, and Moses holding the Ten Commandments on the back, went on the block last Saturday, and fetched more than the estimates, selling for about $118,700. (Photo: Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd.)