The violin belonging to the leader of the band on board the Titanic sold at auction Saturday for close to two-million-dollars. The wooden violin belonged to Wallace Hartley, the leader of the band which played for the rich and famous travelling onboard the RMS Titanic 101-years-ago. The name Wallace Hartley may be lost to history but what he and his bandmates did on the night of April 15, 1912 will stand the test of time. The story goes that Hartley and his band played their instruments up until the very moment Titanic began her descent to the depths of the ocean.
"In my 20-years as an auctioneer, I can honestly say I don't think any article has made people show as much emotion as this one," said Andrew Aldridge of the Henry Aldridge & Son auction house where the piece was sold, to the Washington Post. "People pick [the violin] up and start crying." The identity of the person who spent $1.7 million on the violin was kept a secret. The person was only known as a "British collector of Titanic items." As panic gripped the passengers on board the ill-fated ship Hartley and his team of musicians played on attempting to keep passengers from worrying.
"They played until the bitter end, and it was an incredibly brave act," Aldridge said to the Washington Post. "It represents everything good about people - that's the only explanation I can come up with for why it causes so much emotion." The eight band members, including Hartley were just a few of the 1,517 people that died the night the Titanic sank. Just before midnight on April 14, 1912 the Titanic struck and iceberg, by 2:20am April 15 the ship slipped beneath the north Atlantic and the legend that now surrounds the Titanic was born.
Days after the Titanic sank Hartley's body was pulled from the water and the violin was still with him. The instrument was a gift from Hartley's fiancée, Maria Robinson. Hartley's fiancée had the back of the violin engraved. The violin reads: "For Wallace, on the occasion of our engagement. From Maria." The auction house spent years authenticating the violin in order to make sure it truly belonged to Hartley. Scientists confirmed the salt water damage and a number of other pieces of evidence proving the piece did belong to Wallace Hartley. Before it was sold at auction the violin spent the past summer on display in the U.S.
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