A HOMEOWNER has made a one-of-a-kind musical discovery in their attic.
The resident obtained the property from their late mother, who held onto a valuable instrument with a tragic past.
While sifting through the attic’s contents in England in 2006, they found the rare item, a violin that originally belonged to none other than Wallace Hartley, per History.
Hartley was notably the bandleader for the RMS Titanic before it sank in the Atlantic on April 15, 1912.
He died in the sinking, along with about 1,500 others among the approximate 2,200 crew members and passengers aboard as it headed for New York City.
Hartley was found by recovery workers who arrived at the site soon after the sinking with several others in a life vest in the middle of the cold ocean water.
The violin was within its protective case and strapped to him.
Workers were able to take his body and violin and deliver it back to his fiancé, Maria Robinson, in England.
Robinson kept it for some time, and it seemingly passed through several hands before ending up with the homeowner’s mother.
A metal plate on the back of the violin verified its authenticity.
It read, “For Wallace on the occasion of our engagement from Maria.”
They brought the violin to the auction house Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd. years later for evaluation, and it was sold in 2013 for $1.7 million.
The sale was a record for artifacts from the Titanic at the time and was later displayed at the Titanic Museum Attractions in Missouri and Tennessee.
Old instruments, specifically violins, can be worth a considerable amount of money depending on their origin.
SNEAKY VALUE
A woman who appeared during an episode of PBS Antiques Roadshow recently brought a violin their father bought in the 1990s for $175 in Florida to be evaluated.
She said he rarely used it as he preferred the tone of another one he had, so it mostly sat around.
Brief History of the Titanic Sinking
It proved to be an eerie declaration that would subsequently lead to countless deaths.
While there are several conspiracy theories about how the Titanic sank during the late night and early morning hours of April 14 and 15 of the same year, it is almost unanimously agreed that the ship struck an iceberg that left irreparable damage to its hull.
Countless decisions led to the wreck. A desire to save on costs and the belief by many that the Titanic was truly “unsinkable” led to only 20 lifeboats being placed on the ship when it could’ve carried at least 48. This would accommodate roughly half of the souls aboard.
About 1,500 people died in the sinking. It’s still considered to be the most famous and one of the most deadly maritime disasters.
An appraiser with the show immediately identified it as a design from Ernst Heinrich Roth — a famous German violin-maker — from around 1926.
A label on the inside of the violin was even inscribed with his name.
The appraiser told the woman that the instrument alone was worth at least $10,000.
She couldn’t believe her ears.
Similarly, a couple from Texas found a violin in the trash that turned out to be worth at least $50,000 thanks to its creator.
Other seemingly mundane items like a silver tray a collector bought as a homeware addition can be worth upwards of $12,000 depending on their history.