And The Band Played On

On Friday 18 October 2013, a violin sold at an auction in Wiltshire, England for £900,000 ($1,457,000). It was not one of the famous Stradivarius instruments, in fact it was not even a particularly high quality violin, just an average old fiddle. It’s condition also left much to be desired. The metalwork had rusted, and the woodwork had suffered similarly. It was virtually unplayable. So why was the knackered old thing so sought after and valuable. As you might guess, it has an intriguing back story.

To get to the beginning of the tale, let us start at the point of sale and work our way backwards. The purchaser of the violin chose to remain anonymous, though it was believed they were British. Although privately owned, the instrument is occasionally loaned out for display to museums around the world. At the time of writing I am given to understand that it is currently on display in the United States. The vendor of the violin, who also chose to remain anonymous, had inherited it upon the death of his or her parents. The parent who possessed the instrument had learned to play violin in the 1940’s and had been gifted it by their music teacher. A letter from teacher to pupil referred to the present as being “virtually unplayable, no doubt due to its eventful life.”  The violin teacher had herself been given it by a Salvation Army bandmaster in whose band she played.

Shortly beforehand, the violin had been given to the Salvation Army, by a woman who had inherited it from her sister when she passed away in 1939. The deceased sister’s name was Maria Robinson, and the instrument had belonged to her fiancée, who had himself died several decades earlier. Upon the death of her betrothed, she had been given his violin as a keepsake. You will be pleased to know that we are now getting close to the reason for the instrument’s value. The name of Maria’s fiancée was Wallace Henry Hartley. Wallace Hartley had been the bandleader aboard RMS Titanic, who famously played on as the stricken vessel slipped beneath the waves on 15 April 1912, with the loss of over 1,500 lives. Sadly, Wallace was among those who died in the sinking. The violin in question is the very instrument Hartley had been playing as the disaster unfolded.

Now I know what you’re thinking. How did this instrument survive the sinking, and not go down with the ship? And how do we know this is that violin? After all, with valuable antiques, provenance is everything. It is largely thanks to the painstaking efforts of one man, Alan Aldridge of auction house Henry Aldridge and Son, who spent seven years studying the instrument, and tracing the trail back from the vendor all the way to Wallace Hartley himself, that we have the answers. Firstly we have a paper trail in the form of two important documents. In the letter from the violin teacher to her pupil, she refers to the instrument’s eventful life. Further corroborating evidence came to light in the form of correspondence between Maria Robinson and the provincial secretary of Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the bodies recovered from the site of the sinking were brought. In it she expresses her “heartfelt thanks to all those concerned in the return of my late fiancée’s violin”.

So how came the violin to be recovered? After all, the sombre task undertaken by the recovery vessels was the recovery of bodies, not musical instruments. The answer comes to us from contemporary newspaper articles, which reported the important information that when Wallace Hartley’s body was recovered, it was found that he had strapped his music case about his person. The violin was contained therein. Apparently he was very attached to that particular instrument, and it seems he chose to enter the water with it strapped to his back in the hope of rescue, or possibly also as a means of identification in the event of death.

But perhaps the most compelling evidence is the instrument itself. Experts were engaged to study the violin with a view to establishing both its origin and the likelihood that it was the very instrument Hartley had been playing when the ship went down. Andrew Hooker, an expert on musical instruments, identified it as of German manufacture, and to it having been made between 1880 and 1900, making it of the right age. He also concluded that it would have been a mid-priced instrument at the time, which concurred with Hartley’s requirements and status. Additionally, forensic scientist Michael Jones carefully examined the violin and concluded that the corrosion to the metal was not only consistent with it having been immersed in seawater, but matched that of other metal objects recovered from the Titanic. A CT scan was also undertaken, which revealed that the glue used in its manufacture, was of a type that would have been able to cope with both immersion in salt water and freezing temperatures. The scan also revealed two hairline cracks, which indicated that it had been subject to some degree of trauma. It is these cracks that rendered the instrument, for all intents and purposes, unplayable.

However, regardless of all the foregoing evidence, the most striking affirmation that this was Wallace Hartley’s violin, is also the most personal and poignant. A silver plaque attached to the tailpiece of the instrument reads “For Wallace On The Occasion of Our Engagement from Maria”. The plaque is hallmarked 1910, the year the couple became engaged, and expert analysis has concluded that it has been attached to the violin for a very long time.

A practising barrister was asked to examine the evidence and give his considered opinion as to the authenticity of the instrument. He concluded “the evidence presented does meet the standard of beyond reasonable doubt and is quite compelling”.

Amazingly, we even know the last tune played on the violin by Harltey as the ship went down. According to survivors it was a very appropriate hymn; Nearer My God to Thee. Wallace Henry Hartley’s body was eventually returned to England. Hartley’s father met the ship at Liverpool and brought his son’s body back to his home-town of Colne, Lancashire. His funeral took place on 18 May 1912. One thousand people attended Hartley’s funeral, while an estimated 30,000 – 40,000 lined the route of his funeral procession. Hartley’s grave is in the Keighley Road cemetery, Colne, where a 10 feet (3.0 m) high headstone, containing a carved violin at its base, was erected in his honour.

Sources:

bbc.co.uk/uk-england-wiltshire

encyclopedia-titanica.org

wikipedia.org