BELGIUM/U.S.A./ENGLAND, À la gloire de la Télégraphie sans fil [To the Glory of

Bremaecker, Eugène-Jean de (Belgian, 1879-1963); b. Brussels, and Fisch & Cie (Brussels, 1853-present) BELGIUM/U.S.A./ENGLAND, À la gloire de la Télégraphie sans fil [To the Glory of Wireless Telegraphy (on the S.S. Republic, Ohio and R.M.S. Titanic)], 1912, a bronze plaque by E.-J. de Brémaecker for Fisch on behalf of the Société Hollandaise-Belge des Amis de la Médaille, diaphanous female figure seated on telegraph wires above ship’s rigging over an expanse of sea, one hand to her mouth and the other to her ear, rev. legends divided by smoking torch, 66 x 53mm, 85.58g (Buchet/Toussaint 31; cf. Höhn 106, 3881; cf. SJA 49, 1276; cf. ICE 7, 566). Softly modelled, very fine, rare £100-£150 --- Provenance: DNW Auction M6, 17 December 2007, lot 1326. Edition of 302. The inscriptions on this plaque include the names of John George Phillips (1887-1912) and Harold Bride (1890-1956), the two wireless operators in the Marconi radio room on the Titanic. Phillips was the senior radio officer and perished in the disaster, while Bride, his deputy, survived. Both men had stayed at their posts until three minutes before the Titanic sank, despite having been earlier released from their duties by Captain Smith. Bride later gave testimony to both the American and the British boards of inquiry into the Titanic disaster, describing what iceberg warnings had been received on that fateful night. The plaque was produced soon after the sinking and demonstrates the truly international nature of the tragedy and the people affected