Titanic violin auctioned for world record £900,000

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
London (AFP) - The violin played by the bandmaster of the Titanic to calm passengers as it sank sold at auction for £900,000 ($1.45 million, 1.06 million euros) on Saturday, a world record fee for memorabilia from the doomed liner.

The instrument, found strapped to the body of Wallace Hartley after he drowned along with 1,500 others in the disaster in 1912, was sold at Titanic specialist auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Son in Devizes, southwest England.

"We're absolutely overjoyed," Christine Aldridge, a spokeswoman for the auction house, told AFP.
"It was sold to a UK collector who was bidding by telephone. The whole sale only took about 10 minutes."
She said the final price including premiums paid to the auction house was £1,050,030.

The instrument carries an inscription from the 33-year-old's fiancee Maria Robinson to mark their engagement and was on sale with its leather luggage case, initialled W.H.H, in which it was found.
For decades the violin was believed lost but it was found in the attic of a house in northwest England in 2006, prompting a debate about its authenticity, which experts only recently resolved.

Bidding started at just £50 for the violin, but within a few minutes it had passed the previous world record of £220,000 for a Titanic piece as competition between four telephone bidders hotted up.
There were gasps from the 200 people at the auction house as the price reached £350,000 and then a tense silence as the battle for the instrument narrowed to two telephone bidders.

Hartley's band played the hymn "Nearer, My God, to Thee" to try to calm passengers while they climbed into lifeboats as the Titanic sank beneath the icy waves in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg.
Hartley and his seven fellow band members all died after choosing to play on.
 

RogerD

VIP/Donor
May 23, 2010
3,734
318
565
BiggestLittleCity
A drop in the bucket...the Fed added a Trillion dollars to it's balance sheet this year alone and with Ole Yeller at the helm......weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
 

Asamel

Well-Known Member
Jan 22, 2012
578
1
263
Philly
Old Yeller?
 

RogerD

VIP/Donor
May 23, 2010
3,734
318
565
BiggestLittleCity

About us

  • What’s Best Forum is THE forum for high end audio, product reviews, advice and sharing experiences on the best of everything else. This is THE place where audiophiles and audio companies discuss vintage, contemporary and new audio products, music servers, music streamers, computer audio, digital-to-analog converters, turntables, phono stages, cartridges, reel-to-reel tape machines, speakers, headphones and tube and solid-state amplification. Founded in 2010 What’s Best Forum invites intelligent and courteous people of all interests and backgrounds to describe and discuss the best of everything. From beginners to life-long hobbyists to industry professionals, we enjoy learning about new things and meeting new people, and participating in spirited debates.

Quick Navigation

User Menu

Steve Williams
Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator
Ron Resnick
Site Co-Owner | Administrator
Julian (The Fixer)
Website Build | Marketing Managersing