In September 2022, A.H. Wilkens Auctioneers & Appraisals of Toronto, Canada contacted Ian about an upcoming auction. Among the lots was a remarkably intact deck chair, consigned from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and purported to be from the Titanic disaster. Intrigued, Ian downloaded the provenance documents and began a new research journey—back on the hunt more than 20 years after his first Titanic adventure.
The chair's story traces back to one of the Titanic's recovery vessels, where it was gifted to Reverend George Ambrose and his wife, Almira “Aunt Allie” Balcom, who lived at the corner of South and Robie Street in Halifax. It remained in their family for generations until it was consigned for auction by Edward Reardon of Saint John, New Brunswick, and his siblings. Coincidentally, Ian himself had once lived in Saint John while launching the National Basketball League of Canada.
Stamped beneath the right arm with “Kaufmann Liverpool”—a cabinet maker listed in Gore's Directory of 1911—the chair bore a striking resemblance to the earlier LeMarteleur deck chair, with only minor differences. Its provenance included documentation dating back to the 1970s, when it had even been considered for donation to the Fall River Titanic Museum. A period photograph from 1912 shows nine or ten similar deck chairs stacked aboard the cable ship Mackay-Bennett, which returned to Halifax with over 300 bodies and floating wreckage from the Titanic disaster.
Ian ultimately secured the chair at auction and brought it to his home on Cape Cod. “I always regretted parting with the first chair—especially with the way that auction went forward just after September 11, 2001,” Ian says. “When I heard about this second chair, I knew the universe was giving me another chance.”
In the fall of 2024, Flying Fish Exhibits approached him with an invitation to feature it in their new traveling exhibition, Finding Titanic—the first major Titanic exhibit organized in collaboration with the team that originally discovered the wreck in 1985. It was an offer Ian couldn’t refuse.
“Having the chair included in Finding Titanic—alongside members of the original discovery team and some of the most storied artifacts in maritime history—is a dream come true,” Ian says. “This is exactly the kind of platform these chairs deserve.”
