3 hours ago
8
A violin which featured in James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster Titanic has sold for £54,000 at an auction in Wiltshire of memorabilia relating to the 1912 shipwreck.
The violin was played by the musician and actor Jonathan Evans-Jones, who played band leader Wallace Hartley in the film. It is seen several times in the film, including during the scene in which the band play the hymn Nearer My God to Thee in an attempt to calm passengers as the ship sinks.
As they conclude, Hartley says: “Gentlemen, it has been a privilege playing with you tonight.” All of the musicians onboard the Titanic were among the 1,500 people who lost their lives when the ship sank in the Atlantic ocean after hitting an iceberg.
In 2013, Evans-Jones sold the violin at auction to a private collector, who put it up for sale with Henry Aldridge & Son auctioneers.
Other lots sold on Sunday include a letter written by one of the most well-known survivors of the Titanic disaster, Colonel Archibald Gracie, which sold for £300,000, and a rare Titanic manifest sheet and inspection card.
Cameron’s multi-Oscar-winning film starred Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio as passengers who meet and fall in love on the voyage, despite a class divide.
Speaking on the Graham Norton Show to promote her Lee Miller biopic last year, Winslet said she was surprised to see Evans-Jones again when watching the soundtrack to the film – which she also produced – being recorded.
“I was looking through the glass into the stage where all the musicians are,” she said. “Huge, 120-piece orchestra. And I’m looking at this violinist and I thought, ‘I know that face.’ And then the day goes on, and a few of the musicians start going, ‘It’s [him]!’ and they’re sort of pointing at him.
“I’m thinking, ‘Am I related to this person? Who is this person?’ And at the end of the day, I thought, “OK, I’ve got to go in.’ So I went in, and he went, ‘Kate, it’s me!’ You know when the Titanic is going down, and the violinist stands up, and he goes, ‘Come on, lads,’ and he starts playing? It was that guy! I’m like, ‘It’s you!’ It was wonderful.”
Evans-Jones’s movie credits also include No Time to Die, Kung Fu Panda 4 and Wicked.
