Pawnbroker pays £15,000 for bunch of Titanic 'relics' handed over in an old carrier bag... and finds they're worth £1.2million

• .Mark Manning, 50, bought the collection for £15,000 
• .Artefacts include an inherited piece of ship's wooden staircase and fragment of steel hull 
• .Anonymous collector passed relics on to allow other people the chance to admire them

By LIZ HULL

Working as a pawnbroker, Mark Manning was used to seeing weird and wonderful things coming through his shop.

But even he was sceptical when one customer walked in with 101-year-old relics from the Titanic in a plastic carrier bag.

The punter claimed part of the collection which included a fragment of the doomed ship’s metal hull, had been gifted to him by George Tulloch – one of the men behind the controversial decision to bring artefacts up from the seabed in the 1990s. 

Mr Manning told the Daily Mail he thought his luck was 'too good to be true' when the collector brought the relics to his shop in Chester

The collector told the Daily Mail he had been fascinated with the Titanic since he was a child. His decision to sell the collection 'was never about the money' and rather a way of allowing other people to admire the artefacts

After examining some accompanying documents, Mr Manning took the customer at his word and agreed to hand over £15,000 for the collection. To his amazement the story checked out and the relics have since been valued at more than £1.2million.

Last night Mr Manning, 50, said: ‘Initially, I thought it was mad, a bit of a hoax. It just seemed too good to be true.

 

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‘For a start who carries around 100-year-old relics in a plastic bag, it just seemed a bit crazy.

‘But then the customer began to tell me his story, about how he came to own them. He had all the supporting documents, so it began to seem less insane and appeared genuine.

‘It was a massive gamble, handing over the £15,000, but now I know the collection is worth a lot more. I had one offer for £1.2million, but I don’t want to sell them just yet. I want people to get a chance to see them first.’

The customer, a civil servant and avid collector, from Wirral, Merseyside, became obsessed with the story of the Titanic as a young boy after he inherited a piece of wooden stairwell from a first class cabin on the liner.

Among the artefacts is a fragment of the doomed ship's hull and a piece of wood taken from its grand staircase 

The collector, who wishes to remain anonymous, also had in his possession a block of wood which was used to sit the engine upon while it was being made

His great grandfather was given the small piece of carved wood by a deckhand on board the Cable Ship Minia which was sent to recover bodies and debris from the Titanic immediately after it sank. 

The customer's great grandfather befriended the man who had worked on the Canadian vessel during the First World War. 

When it emerged that Mr Tulloch and his company, RMS Titanic Incorporated, were planning an expedition to the ship, the collector, who the Daily Mail has spoken to and agreed not to identify, penned a letter to the salvage company boss. 

He initially expressed his disgust, believing the wreck, which was found at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean in 1985, should be left untouched as a memorial to the 1,500 people who perished when it famously struck an ice-berg on its maiden voyage in April 1912.

A piece of wood from the ship's grand staircase (imagined here in plans for a replica vessel, Titanic II) was given to the collector's great grandfather during the First World War. He later inherited it and began collecting other relics

The collector was outraged when he learned an expedition team was travelling to the seabed to recover part of the wreck in the 1990s sand wrote to George Tulloch, one of the team, to complain

To his surprise, Mr Tulloch wrote back, saying it was the company’s aim to preserve the wreck for future generations and included a piece of coal salvaged from the ship.

It was the beginning of a pen pal relationship between the two men, who corresponded for seven years before Mr Tulloch’s death, aged 59, in 2004.

During that time Mr Tulloch also sent the collector a two inch piece of hull – believed to be one of the largest pieces owned by a private individual – as a gift.

The small piece of rusted steel was accompanied by a letter which confirmed that it was salvaged from a cabin on the upper right hand section of a 17 ton section of hull, known as ‘the big piece,’ which was raised from the seabed in 1998.

The recovered piece of coal was given to the collector by George Tulloch, one of the men behind the controversial decision to bring artefacts up from the seabed in the 1990s

George Tulloch, pictured above, gave the collector a piece of the ship's hull after recovering it in an expedition in the 1990s. The two men remained in touch until Mr Tulloch died in 2004

Last night the collector told the Daily Mail: ‘It was never about the money, so I’m not kicking myself. I have been interested in the Titanic since I was a boy. I inherited the staircase, then built up my collection over 15 years.

‘But it deserves to be cherished, it’s no use being locked up and out of view and I thought Mark, with his contacts, would be the best person to get it out there and seen.

‘It got to the stage where I couldn’t look at the piece of hull or handle it because it is so fragile, I was terrified it might get stolen and I realised I wasn’t the right person to own it.

‘It’s a very rare, valuable ordinary looking object which should be viewed by ordinary people, but not owned by one.’

As well as the piece of coal, staircase and hull, the collection also includes a piece of the wooden block used to sit the engine upon while it was being made, a small section of green patterned carpet from first class and iron from a gantry used in the creation of the ship’s hull.

The tragic ship has fascinated people for 100 years. An artist recreates black and white images in colour here to give a more realistic imagination of what it looked like in 1912

The collector was constantly worried he would be burgled with the precious artefacts in his possession

Enthusiasts have spent years trying to recreate the ship and its interior in art, exhibitions, film and television

Mr Manning, who runs Regal Pawnbrokers, in Deeside, near Chester, said he has all the original, signed letters and documents from Mr Tulloch which accompany the collection and they have been authenticated.

Mr Manning is thinking of loaning the relics to a museum. He said it was 'amazing' to own a piece of a story the 'whole world knows about'

‘I paid £15,000 which doesn’t seem much now compared to the historical value,’ he added.

‘The collector was paying insurance on the relics, he was worried he could be burgled and wanted to get rid of that burden, as well as getting some money for it.

‘He also wanted other people to see it, so I’ve been taking it around schools - kids think it is great to be able to touch a genuine piece of the Titanic.

‘I’m also going to look into loaning it to a museum for a few months.

‘We’ve already had an offer of £1.2million for the piece of hull, but when I sell it the collector will get a fair share. We have a gentleman’s agreement because I had no idea it was worth that much when he walked through the door.

‘We see some very unusual items in the shop, but the whole world knows the story of the Titanic so to have a piece of the original ship is amazing.’

The story is one of several unusual tales filmed at the pawnbrokers for a new fly-on-the-wall documentary series on HISTORY. 

Pawn Stars UK premiered at on August 26.