A c1900 interior picture of the first class library with the bookcase to be offered at Lynes and Lynes in Carrigtuohill on January 26. Image courtesy Ulster Folk and Transport Museum (click to enlarge).
An antique bookcase salvaged from a White Star liner which foundered at the entrance to Cork Harbour – last port of call of the Titanic – comes up at a Lynes and Lynes auction in east Cork on January 26. The breakfront bookcase from the First Class Library of the S.S. Celtic can be seen in situ to the left of the photograph here. The image was taken by official Harland and Wolff photographer Robert Welch around 1900 as the vessel was being fitted out The four door mahogany and satinwood breakfront bookcase has unusual decorative glazing on the upper doors and marquetry inlay on the lower doors. There is a letter box for posting at sea in the base. The original clock from the cornice is missing. The piece is estimated at 10,000-15,000.
The bookcase from the White Star liner SS Celtic. (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: IT MADE 22,000 AT HAMMER.
Celtic was launched in 1901 and served on the Liverpool New York route. At the beginning of the First World War she was converted to an armed merchant cruiser, and subsequently a troop ship. She was lucky in wartime, and survived striking a mine off the Isle of Man in 1917 and being torpedoed by a U-boat in the Irish Sea in 1918. Commercial service resumed after the war ended. In December 1928 Celtic became stranded on the cow and calf rocks near Roches Point. The Ballycotton Lifeboat and various other local vessels arrived, and the crew served breakfast before passengers were disembarked by tender and taken to Cobh. Seven thousand tons of cargo were scattered. She had been completely dismantled for scrap by 1933.