A piece of Tata Steel history, rather Indian steel history, is set to return home after over a century.
On February 16, 1912, Tata Steel rolled out its first steel ingot, marking a momentous day in the history of industrial India. In March the same year, an engraved desk weight - a section of the first steel rail track made from that ingot — was presented to Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe (1858-1947).
Later, the desk weight became part of the "The Duchess" Indian collection, consisting of property and precious objects from the estate of Mary, the Duchess of Roxburghe. Her descendants later auctioned it. Nearly, 103 years after it was produced, Tata Steel bought back the desk weight at the Sotheby's auction in UK held on May 27-28, 2015.
According to Sotheby's website, the paper weight was lot number 255 with a reserve price between pound sterling 800-1,200 and sold at pound sterling 9,375, which at current exchange rate translates to nearly Rs 9.2 lakh.
The proud new owner stated that "this piece of Indian steel history will soon arrive (in India)", and will be kept at Jamshedpur's Centre for Excellence — a gallery housing priceless archives of photographs, items and information on India's oldest steel company.
Jamsetji Tata founded Tata Steel after a visit to England, where he was inspired by a lecture on the wealth that a nation could tap into through the control of iron. After extensive investigation as to which region had the richest coal, iron ore and limestone deposits, Tata started constructing the plant in Sakchi (later named Jamshedpur) in 1907, where the first steel ingot was rolled out after five years.
Tata Steel is today the world's fifth largest steel producer, with annual capacity of 30 million tonnes and revenues of $22 billion in fiscal 2015.
Source: The Times of India
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