Wealth

'World's most valuable cracker' sells for $23K

Titanic cracker sells for $23K
VIDEO0:3600:36
Titanic cracker sells for $23K

A biscuit that survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 has been sold at auction for £15,000 ($22,990), to an anonymous bidder.

U.K. auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son hailed it the "world's most valuable biscuit" with the item selling on Saturday for over the initial guide price of £8,000 to £12,000.

But have years of global monetary easing turned the world of antiques a little crackers?

Andrew Aldridge, a chartered valuation surveyor at the auction house, told CNBC via telephone that there was little surprise with the final price.


Titanic violin sells for $1.4 million at auction

"It's so unusual...it's such a rarity that bidders are willing to go the extra," he said.

The "hard tack cracker" formed part of a survival kit that would have been found in the Titanic's lifeboats, according to the auction house's website. The cracker was made by now-defunct company Spillers and Baker, which existed during Victorian Britain.

It was kept as a souvenir by the Fenwicks, newlyweds that were onboard the SS Carpathia that came to the rescue of Titanic survivors. The biscuit was auctioned from direct descendants of the Fenwicks and was sold alongside a photographic archive from the rescue.

Detail of Titanic lunch menu
Titanic lunch menu could fetch up to $70,000 at auction

"The Fenwick archive is arguably the definitive photographic archive of negatives relating to the rescue of the surviving Titanic passengers and crew," the press release from the auction house states.

"The camera the couple were carrying was able to chronicle the momentous events that followed and provide a unique record of the events that unfolded."

In October 2013, Henry Aldridge and Son sold the violin that was famously played by the Titanic's bandmaster as the Titanic sank for £900,000. It broke the previous world record price for a single Titanic-related item set at $340,000.