Kraft Auction Service is planning to hold their annual anniversary antique auction tomorrow, on January 7, 2012. The sale will be held at the Lake County Fairgrounds in Crown Point, Indiana.
Top lots in this year's sale include a collection from a survivor from the Titanic, an original Tiffany lamp and a Joseph Kleitsch oil painting. The most historically interesting pieces in the auction are the Titanic items from the estate of Albert Horswill.
The collection includes Horswill's original wage slip that he carried off the ship as it sank. Horswill manned lifeboat number one off the ship with other crew members and first class passengers.
![]() Saved from the sinking ship: Albert Hornswill's Titanic wage slip |
The lot also includes his summons letter to the Royal Court only days after that faithful night to give his story of what had happened.
Other pieces in the collection include an original oil painting of the Titanic painted for Horswill by co-workers of the local painters union he was a member of in northwest Indiana, an original photo of Horswill, and a variety of newspaper articles for which he was interviewed.
Many collectors specialise in Titanic memorabilia of course, and we've recently listed off some of our favourite sales ahead of the astonishing auction of the travelling collection of Titanic memorabilia which can only be sold as one lot. It is expected to bring $189m.
Topping the sale of decorative art is an elegant Tiffany green linen-fold table lamp. The shade measures 18.5 inches at its widest point and sits on a 533 Tiffany base.
![]() A highly desirable Tiffany linen fold green lamp |
Base and shade show proper patina. The linen-fold design was created in 1913 by L.C. Tiffany exclusively for lamps, and it was only shortly afterward that he stepped down from actively working within his company.
Other Tiffany items in the sale include a Tiffany pottery lamp base, sterling silver cup, and a gilt bronze mantel clock.
A variety of high-quality art will pass the auction block as well on January 7. The leading painting of the sale is a Joseph Kleitsch oil on canvas of an impressionistic California countryside scene.
Kleitsch is known as one of the premier early members of the California school of Impressionism painters. The painting is fresh out of an estate where it had been held for more than 50 years.