Violin from famous Titanic film scene to be auctioned
The violin played by the bandmaster in the Hollywood film depicting the sinking of the Titanic is expected to sell for up to £60,000 at auction.
The scene shows Wallace Hartley leading his fellow musicians in playing as the doomed ocean liner goes down, most famously the hymn Nearer My God To Thee.
Mr Hartley and his seven fellow band members were killed in the tragedy in 1912, in which a total of 1,500 people died after the ship hit an iceberg.
In the eponymous film, directed by James Cameron, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet star as members of different social classes who fall in love during the ship's maiden voyage.
Violinist /actor Jonathan Evans-Jones played bandmaster Mr Hartley carrying on in the face of impending doom.
The original screen violin can be seen multiple times in the 1997 blockbuster and during the sequence of the Titanic sinking as Nearer My God To Thee is played.
Mr Evans-Jones sold the violin in 2013 and it has been in the possession of a private collector since they purchased it at an auction.
The violin, which comes with a signed certificate of authenticity, is going under the hammer at Henry Aldridge & Son, of Devizes, Wiltshire, on April 26.
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: 'Having sold the original violin that was played by Wallace Hartley when the Titanic sank on April 15th 1912 in 2013 for £1.1 million, we are delighted to offer the violin that was played in James Cameron's movie for auction, one of the highest grossing movies of all time.
'This is a true piece of movie history that will appeal to both Titanic and movie memorabilia collectors – it's a true cross-collectible.'
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The Heroes, 2011 A gritty tale of courage, betrayal and redemption taking place against the background of a three-day battle between the 'civilized' Union from the South and the wild and lawless warriors of the North and centred on a group of ancient standing stones referred to as 'The Heroes'. Set in the same universe as the author's First Law trilogy, Abercrombie's ability to conjure action and violence without tipping into sadism is on full display while characters such as noble barbarian warrior Curnden Craw are fully realized and brimming with human flaws. 2. The Devils, 2025 It's Medieval Europe as we've never seen it before. The Church consists of female clergy, headed by a 10 year old Pope, while in the lands beyond, hordes of cruel elves are massing and planning an invasion. The only way to save civilization is for a rag bag crew of freaks and outlaws – led by mild-mannered Brother Diaz – to travel to the equivalent of ancient Troy to return a princess to her throne. The Middle Ages filtered through Abercrombie's Quentin Tarantino-does-fantasy sensibility, The Devils is a pure thrill ride. No wonder James Cameron is so keen on it. 3. The Blade Itself, 2006 Abercrombie's debut combined Games of Thrones grimdark sensibility with a very British sense of humour that owed a little to Terry Pratchett and a lot to Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It was fantasy – with all the po-facedness stripped away. 4. A Little Hatred, 2019 Fantasy novels can often feel trapped in an eternal stasis: why after thousands of years has nobody in Middle-earth or Westeros invented the flintlock pistol, for instance? Abercrombie however pushes onwards with A Little Hatred, a thrilling novel of intrigue and backstabbing set in a fantasy universe experiencing the first aftershocks of an Industrial Revolution. 5. Red Country, 2012 Doing for fantasy what Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven did for the Western, Red Country is the third standalone novel set in the author's First Law world (as debuted in The Blade Itself). It introduces Shy South, a former brigand who sets out to find her missing brother and sister.
