Watch List notes:

One "Golden Guinea" muscatel (sparkling wine) bottle and one ceramic ashtray, ex-Seine (1955). Bottle: 652 grams and 10" tall x 2-3/4" diameter; ashtray: 233 grams and 5-3/4" diameter. Intact wine bottle, almost completely encrusted in barnacles, with old sticker near bottom that says THE SEINE / 16.7.56, very attractive for display; bright blue and white ashtray with some coral and bits of ceramic missing but essentially intact. First items we have offered from the British cargo vessel MV Seine, which sank in the English Channel about five miles off Dungeness, after collision with Russian tanker Drochobyz (or Drogobitz) on 17th July 1955, en route from Paris to London carrying a cargo of specially commissioned "Golden Guinea" sparkling muscatel wine for the London ceremony marking the withdrawal of the gold guinea coin as legal tender. The vessel was almost stationary due to the poor visibility and was struck by the tanker on her port side, killing the chief engineer. The tanker carried the remaining crew to the French port of Le Havre. From the M.V. Seine, sunk in 1955 off Dungeness, Kent (southeast of England), with photocopied advertisement for Golden Guinea sparkling wine.


Estimate: 250 - 500 USD