Titanic poster up for auction

An extremely rare poster advertising the doomed Titanic's return voyage from New York to Europe could fetch up to £80,000 at auction today.

The poster was printed before the liner struck an iceberg and sank in the early hours of April 15th 1912. It features an image of the Titanic's sister ship, the almost identical Olympic, which was often used for promotional material.

More than 1,500 of the ship's 2,206 passengers and crew died in the disaster. Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said only "a couple" of these posters exist today, either in museums or private collections.

"This poster is one of the rarest Titanic posters in existence," Mr Aldridgesaid. Material relating to Titanic's voyage from New York that never happened is virtually non-existent.

"These posters would have been displayed in New York because that was where Titanic was meant to have sailed from and used to promote the return journey to Southampton. Shortly after Titanic sank they were destroyed but remarkably this one survived, it is one of only a handful still in existence."

It is expected to fetch up to £80,000 when it goes under the hammer at Henry Aldridge and Son in Devizes, Wiltshire, on Saturday.