When the First World War broke out in 1914, a young musician, Harold Triggs, soon found himself serving with the Royal Sussex Regiment in the trenches of the Western Front. He took with him a “holiday cello”, which looks from the outside like a simple wooden box. Inside the box, we find a neck, bow, and strings; within minutes, one can have a functional cello. Triggs carried his instrument around France for the duration of the war. It would not have seemed out of place – many soldiers constructed instruments from spare parts and scrap materials on the front.

 

The faithful instrument stayed with Triggs until 1962 when he sold it to the violin expert, Charles Beare, who has restored...