A pair of work trousers recovered from an 1857 shipwreck off the coast of North Carolina and described as the oldest known pair of jeans in the world have sold for 114,000 dollars (£93,000).

The white, heavy-duty miner’s trousers with a five-button fly were among 270 Gold Rush-era artifacts that sold for a total of nearly one million dollars (£800,000) in Nevada, according to Holabird Western American Collections.

The trousers predate by 16 years the first pair officially manufactured by San Francisco-based Levi Strauss & Co in 1873. Some say historical evidence suggests there are links to Strauss, who was a wealthy wholesaler of dry goods at the time, and the trousers could be a very early version of what would become the iconic jeans.

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

Fred Holabird, left, and Bob Evans with artifacts including a Wells Fargo treasure box lid from the SS Central America in a warehouse in Nevada (Jason Bean/The Reno Gazette-Journal via AP/PA)

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

The SS Central America sank in a hurricane on September 12, 1857, packed with passengers who began their journey in San Francisco and were on their way to New York via Panama. And there is no indication older work trousers dating to the Gold Rush era exist.

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

Other auction items that had been entombed for more than a century in the ship’s wreckage 7,200 feet (2,195 meters) below the surface of the Atlantic included the purser’s keys to the treasure room where tons of Gold Rush coins and ingots were stored. It sold for 103,200 dollars (£84,000).

Tens of millions of dollars worth of gold has been sold since shipwreck recovery began in 1988. But this sale marked the first time any artifacts were up for auction. Another auction is planned 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,” said Fred Holabird, president of the auction company.

The lid of a Wells Fargo & Co treasure box believed to be the oldest of its kind went for 99,600 dollars (£81,000). An 1849 Colt pocket pistol sold for 30,000 dollars (£24,400). A 20 dollar gold coin minted in San Francisco in 1856 sold for 43,200 dollars (£35,000).

Most of the passengers aboard the SS Central America left San Francisco on another ship — the SS Sonora — and sailed to Panama, where they crossed the Isthmus by train before boarding the doomed ship.

Of those on board when the SS Central America went down, 425 died and 153 were saved.

The unique mix of artefacts from high society San Franciscans to blue-collar workers piqued the interest of historians and collectors alike. The trousers came from the trunk of an Oregon man, John Dement, who served in the Mexican-American War.

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

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

Ms Panek said Levi Strauss & Co. and Jacob Davis, a Reno tailor, received a US Patent in May 1873 for “An Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings.” Months later, she said, the company began manufacturing the famous riveted jeans — “Levi’s 501 jeans, the first modern blue jean”.

She said before the auction that the shipwreck trousers have no company branding — no “patches, buttons or even rivets, the innovation patented in 1873”.

Ms Panek added that the trousers “are not typical of miner’s work pants in our archives”. She cited the color, “unusual fly design with extra side buttonholes” and the non-denim fabric that’s lighter weight “than cloth used for its earliest riveted clothing”.

Levi Strauss & Co has long maintained that up until 1873, the company was strictly a wholesaler and did no manufacturing of clothing.

Mr Holabird believes the trousers were made by a subcontractor for Strauss. He decided to “follow the money — follow the gold” and discovered Strauss’ had a market reach and sales “on a level never seen before”.

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

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The history of blue jeans is legendary: after buying denim pants from the San Francisco-based retailer Levi Strauss, a tailor named Jacob Davis was inspired to reinforce them with copper rivets in the most vulnerable areas. The two businessmen secured a patent for the blue jeans concept in 1873, and shortly afterwards the trousers were hugged by miners, cowboys, and other working-class men.

But their popularity with women didn’t come until decades later. Levi Strauss & Co. produced its first line of jeans for women in the 1930s, and now TIME reports that what may be the oldest surviving pair of jeans from that period has been repurchased by the company.

Get to know Viola: Our oldest pair of Levi’s® jeans for women https://t.co/Cl9iKRWs05 pic.twitter.com/2cgVenCx6c

– Essence Manzano (@jeanslifehq) August 29, 2017

The high-waisted jeans, which feature a fabric patch, and a belt instead of a belt, were first spotted at an estate sale by a vintage clothing collector. They originally belonged to a teacher named Viola Longacre, who died in 2014 at the age of 100. During her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Fresno State College (now California State University, Fresno), she wore the pants in the Sierra Mountains, where classes were held in the summer.

The pair were likely made before 1934, the year the Lady Levi’s collection was first released. The fact that the Levi Strauss & Co. patch on the back of the waist is made of fabric instead of leather leads company historian Tracey Panek to believe they were released as part of an experimental batch measuring women’s interest in the product should. Although they were a staple of men’s wardrobe at the time, it wasn’t until World War II that jeans became a familiar sight for women.

After purchasing the item of clothing from the clothing collector, Levi Strauss & Co. named it “Viola” after its original owner. They are next to the oldest known men’s jeans, a pair from 1879, in the company archive.

[h/t TIME]

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