TWO decorative keys presented to the founder of Liverpool’s White Star Line and his wife will be sold for the first time.

The keys were given to mark ceremonial openings of buildings by Thomas Ismay, who started the firm which owned the Titanic, and his wife Margaret.

Both ornate keys will be sold by leading Liverpool auctioneer Cato Crane next month.

Neither is thought to have been on the market before and the vendor is believed to be a descendant of the Ismay family.

The keys’ quality and value reflect the Ismays’ lofty status at their social and financial peak before their name was tainted by the Titanic disaster.

Money was clearly no object when creating gifts to thank the couple for their time and presence.

Mrs Ismay’s key is solid nine carat gold and 4in long with an enamelled coat of arms. It weighs about 2oz.

Its case is branded Boodle & Dunthorne, 13 Lord Street, Liverpool, and has Mrs Ismay’s initials.

It is dated January 1906, just six years before Titanic’s sinking and a year before Mrs Ismay’s death.

The key’s inscription reads: “Presented to Mrs Ismay on the occasion of her opening Dawpool School.”

The school was close to the Ismays’ spectacular mansion, called Dawpool, near Thurstaston.

Besides being the most important local grandees, the Ismays had probably endowed the school.

The key is expected to make £2,000 to £4,000 at auction.

Mr Ismay’s key is even more elaborate, but made of gilded silver with enamelled decoration on the bow.

Its tooth is created from an exquisite monogram of his initials.

The inscription on the 3in long key reads: “Presented to Thomas Henry Ismay, JP, on the occasion of opening the Bootle Borough Hospital new wing, August 27, 1887.”

It was bought from WL Lawson, of Parker Street, Liverpool.

The key is expected to make £800 to £2,000 at auction.

John Crane, proprietor of Cato Crane, said: “These are very special pieces of White Star Line memorabilia and as far as I know they have never been on the open market before.

“They came to me from a very reputable London agent, probably via descendants of the family.

“The keys are not only valuable for their gold content and their beautifully worked finish, which is so crisp, but also this amazing link to the Ismays.

“Obviously because of the Titanic centenary this year, interest in White Star Line memorabilia is at an all-time high across the world.

“Thanks to the internet, if someone wants them somewhere on the planet they will do very well indeed.

“While Titanic memorabilia is rare, it is still around. Last year we sold the cigar box once owned by Captain Edward Smith for £25,000.”

Capt Smith, who went down with Titanic, lived in Marine Terrace, Waterloo.

Thomas Ismay died seven years before the tragedy and therefore did not suffer the ignomy and blame for the Titanic’s sinking.

That judgement fell on his son, J Bruce Ismay, chairman of White Star Line, who infamously survived Titanic’s sinking.

He boarded a lifeboat while hundreds of women and children remained onboard to face a terrifying death.

But Titanic’s fate broke him and although he continued to live in Wirral, he sold Dawpool.

The Ismay keys will be on public view on Monday April 2 at Cato Crane Auctioneers, in Stanhope Street, and auctioned on Tuesday April 3. They will also be online next week at www.cato-crane.co.uk

Only remaining Titanic first-class ticket goes on show in Liverpool's Maritime Museum

THE only remaining first-class ticket for passage aboard the Titanic has gone on display in Liverpool.

Originally belonging to the Reverend Stuart Holden, a vicar from London, it is on show in an exhibition at the Merseyside Maritime Museum to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Titanic shipwreck.

Mr Holden was set to travel to New York on board the doomed ship but pulled out the day before it left Southampton on April 10, 1912, because his wife had fallen ill.

He later had his ticket framed and kept it above his desk until he died in 1934.

Museum director Rachel Mulhearn said although it belongs to the museum the ticket is not usually on display due to its sensitivity to light.

Commenting on the Titanic And Liverpool: The Untold Story exhibition, she said: “We have got the blueprint design of lifeboats, which is really interesting.

“We have the registration of Titanic, which shows it was registered here in Liverpool in 1912.

“At the bottom there is a little red annotated note saying it has been sunk and it hit an iceberg.

“Perhaps the most poignant is a letter by a little girl called May McMurray. She was nine and her dad William was a bedroom steward on Titanic.

“She wrote to him from her home in Liverpool and he never got the letter.

"He sadly perished and the letter returned to the family after it was intercepted at Southampton.”