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Anyone with a fascination for the Titanic can now own a reproduction set of the cutlery that went down with the boat 100 years ago – courtesy of its original maker, Arthur Price.
In April 1912 the employees of Birmingham-based A Price & Co, as the company was then known, were celebrating the business’s tenth anniversary with a commission to supply premium quality cutlery for use on board the world’s newest and most opulent ocean liner, RMS Titanic.
Now, to commemorate the centenary of its fateful maiden voyage, Arthur Price has recreated the Panel Reed cutlery that was used in Titanic’s first class accommodation. Each knife features the logo of the ship’s owner, White Star Line, on its blade exactly as on the original pieces.
After the ship’s wreck was finally located in 1985, Commander Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a co-leader during several expeditions to research the site, witnessed the retrieval of some of Arthur Price’s cutlery from the bed of the Atlantic.
In a letter to Simon Price, great grandson of Arthur Price and current chief executive of the family business, he said:
“I examined recovered silverware from Titanic that I believe are exactly the same silverware as the Dubarry and Panel Reed examples I recently examined produced by your company.
“The Dubarry was recovered in 1987 from the debris field and the Panel Reed was recovered from one of the Titanic’s copper dishwashers discovered near the stern section of the wreck in 1994.”
The Titanic centennial edition comprises 11 loose pieces of cutlery along with gift-boxed and hostess pieces.
Simon Price said it was “an honour for me to be able to commemorate this historic anniversary…The tale of the Titanic has remained in my family for generations.”
