Titanic band leader’s violin case tipped to sell for £120k
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A leather case that protected the violin played by the bandmaster on the Titanic as the ship sank is tipped to sell for £120,000 at auction.
Wallace Hartley and his band are thought to have continued to play after the ship hit the iceberg.
Hartley went down with the ship but not before he put his violin back in its bag which he strapped to himself – possibly for buoyancy – using the long handles.
Days after the sinking in which 1,522 people died, Hartley’s drowned body was recovered with the bag still attached to him.
The violin and the case were later returned to Maria Robinson, his fiancée, in Colne, Lancs. After she died in 1939, the items were donated to the Bridlington Salvation Army band.
One of its members was a music teacher and they gifted the violin to a pupil in the 1940s, separating it from the bag.
Years later, the violin was inherited by her son who sold it at auction for a world record price of £1.1 million after forensic tests and CT scans confirmed it was the one played on the Titanic 101 years before.
The instrument, the most valuable Titanic-related item in existence, is now on display at the Titanic Belfast museum.
The 26in x 14in x 12in case, which has Hartley’s initials of WHH on it, is being sold at auction on April 27 with a guide price of £100,000 to £120,000. It currently belongs to a private collector.
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge, of Henry Aldridge & Son of Devizes, Wilts, said: “Wallace Hartley’s violin is the most iconic piece of Titanic memorabilia ever sold at auction.
“However, it would not have survived if it were not for this valise case made of English coach hide.
“The long straps would have been used by Hartley to strap the bag to himself as the Titanic was sinking. It served to protect the instrument against the salt seawater.
“The bag was forensically tested and corrosion deposits were recovered from the lock mechanism and metalwork and they were found to be consistent with it having been immersed in seawater.
He added: “It is one of the largest pieces of luggage to have survived the disaster.
“It is a tangible link to the Titanic and represents an integral part of the Hartley violin’s journey from Titanic to the present day.”
Band played as ship sank
Hartley was given the maple, spruce and ebony violin with the brown leather case by Robinson in 1910.
Two years later he was the bandleader on the Titanic for its doomed, maiden voyage to New York.
To maintain calm, the eight-piece orchestra was believed to have been moved on deck where they played while the passengers were loaded into lifeboats as the liner sank.
Hartley, 33, was one of the 1,522 people who perished in the tragedy.
The bag is being sold alongside a rare order of service from Hartley’s funeral that was held on May 18 1912 at Colne cemetery.
