Pricey pants from 1857 shipwreck go for US$114K, raise Levi’s questions

RENO, Nev. –

Pulled from a sunken trunk at an 1857 shipwreck off the coast of North Carolina, work pants that public sale officers describe because the oldest identified pair of denims on the earth have offered for US$114,000.

The white, heavy-duty miner’s pants with a five-button fly had been amongst 270 Gold Rush-era artifacts that offered for a complete of practically US$1 million in Reno final weekend, in line with Holabird Western American Collections.

There’s disagreement about whether or not the dear pants have any ties to the daddy of modern-day blue denims, Levi Strauss, as they predate by 16 years the primary pair formally manufactured by his San Francisco-based Levi Strauss & Co. in 1873. Some say historic proof suggests there are hyperlinks to Strauss, who was a rich wholesaler of dry items on the time, and the pants could possibly be a really early model of what would turn out to be the enduring denims.

But the corporate’s historian and archive director, Tracey Panek, says any claims about their origin are “speculation.”

“The pants are not Levi’s nor do I believe they are miner’s work pants,” she wrote in an electronic mail to The Associated Press.

Regardless of their origin, there is no denying the pants had been made earlier than the S.S. Central America sank in a hurricane on Sept. 12, 1857, full of passengers who started their journey in San Francisco and had been on their option to New York by way of Panama. And there is no indication older work pants relationship to the Gold Rush-era exist.

“Those miner’s jeans are like the first flag on the moon, a historic moment in history,” mentioned Dwight Manley, managing companion of the California Gold Marketing Group, which owns the artifacts and put them up for public sale.

Other public sale gadgets that had been entombed for greater than a century within the ship’s wreckage 7,200 toes (2,195 metres) under the floor of the Atlantic Ocean included the purser’s keys to the treasure room the place tons of Gold Rush cash and assayers ingots had been saved. It offered for US$103,200.

Tens of tens of millions of {dollars} price of gold has been offered since shipwreck restoration started in 1988. But final Saturday marked the primary time any artifacts hit the public sale block. Another public sale is deliberate in February.

“There has never been anything like the scope of these recovered artifacts, which represented a time capsule of daily life during the Gold Rush,” mentioned Fred Holabird, president of the public sale firm.

The lid of a Wells Fargo & Co. treasure field believed to be the oldest of its form went for US$99,600. An 1849 Colt pocket pistol offered for US$30,000. A US$20 gold coin minted in San Francisco in 1856 and later stamped with a Sacramento drug retailer advert introduced US$43,200.

Most of the passengers aboard the S.S. Central America left San Francisco on one other ship — the S.S. Sonora — and sailed to Panama, the place they crossed the isthmus by prepare earlier than boarding the doomed ship. Of these on board when the S.S. Central America went down, 425 died and 153 had been saved.

The distinctive mixture of artifacts from excessive society San Franciscans to blue-collar staff piqued the curiosity of historians and collectors alike. The pants got here from the trunk of an Oregon man, John Dement, who served within the Mexican-American War.

“At the end of the day, nobody can say these are or are not Levi’s with 100% certainty,” Manley mentioned. But “these are the only known Gold Rush jean … not present in any collection in the world.”

Holabird, thought-about a Gold Rush-era professional in his over 50 years as a scientist and historian, agreed: “So far, no museum has come forward with another.”

Panek mentioned Levi Strauss & Co. and Jacob Davis, a Reno tailor, acquired a U.S. Patent in May 1873 for “An Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings.” Months later, she mentioned, the corporate started manufacturing the well-known riveted pants — “Levi’s 501 jeans, the first modern blue jean.”

She mentioned earlier than the public sale that the shipwreck pants haven’t any firm branding — no “patches, buttons or even rivets, the innovation patented in 1873.”

Panek added in emails to AP this week that the pants “are not typical of miner’s work pants in our archives.” She cited the colour, “unusual fly design with extra side buttonholes” and the non-denim material that is lighter weight “than cloth used for its earliest riveted clothing.”

Holabird mentioned he instructed Panek whereas she examined the pants in Reno final week there was no option to evaluate them traditionally or scientifically to these made in 1873.

Everything had modified — the supplies, product availability, manufacturing strategies and market distribution — between 1857 and the time Strauss got here out with a rivet-enforced pocket, Holabird mentioned. He mentioned Panek did not disagree with him.

Levi Strauss & Co. has lengthy maintained that up till 1873, the corporate was strictly a wholesaler and did no manufacturing of clothes.

Holabird believes the pants had been made by a subcontractor for Strauss. He determined to “follow the money — follow the gold” and found Strauss’ had a market attain and gross sales “on a level never seen before.”

“Strauss was the largest single merchant to ship gold out of California in the 1857-1858 period,” Holabird mentioned.

The record of the US$1.6 million cargo that left San Francisco on the S.S. Sonora in August 1857 for Panama was topped by Wells Fargo’s US$260,300 in gold. Five different huge banks had been subsequent, adopted by Levi Strauss with US$76,441. Levi Strauss had not less than 14 related shipments averaging US$91,033 every from 1856-58, Holabird mentioned.

“Strauss is selling to every decent-sized dry goods store in the California gold regions, probably hundreds of them — from Shasta to Sonora and beyond,” Holabird mentioned. “This guy was an absolute marketing genius, unforeseen.”

“In short, his huge sales create a cause to be manufactured. He would have to contract with producers for an entire production run.”