Casket given to shipbuilder Wolff going under hammer
A RARE silver presentation casket given to one of the founders of Harland and Wolff shipyard over 100 years ago will be auctioned next week.
The casket was given in 1911 to Gustav Wilhelm Wolff, whose company built the Titanic.
Estimated to be worth between £2,000 and £3,000, it will go under the hammer in England on February 27.
German-born Wolff was first employed by shipbuilder Edward Harland as his personal assistant at Robert Hickson’s shipyard at Queen’s Island in Belfast.
In 1861 he became a business partner in the firm, forming Harland and Wolff, before retiring in 1906.
Wolff also served as a Belfast Harbour commissioner and founded Belfast Ropeworks in the early 1870s.
Like Harland, Wolff served as MP for Belfast East from March 1892 to December 1910.
The two were known in the House of Commons as ‘Majestic’ and ‘Teutonic’.
Wolff was also a member of the Conservative Party and Irish and Ulster Unionist parties.
He was awarded the Freedom of Belfast by the Belfast Corporation in February 1911.
The impressive silver-cased casket was presented to Wolff to mark the occasion,
He also received a certificate scroll that was signed by the then Lord Mayor of Belfast R J McMordie.
The rectangular box with a removable lid bears the coat of arms of Belfast.
It is contained within a fitted blue velvet casket case made for Belfast-based Gibson & Co Ltd Silversmiths & Jewellers — together with a book addressed to Wolff from the unionists of East Belfast “for their appreciation of his services to the unionist cause throughout his parliamentary career”.
The casket will feature in Catherine Southon’s sale at the Farleigh Court Golf Club in Selsdon, Surrey.