Books › A catalogue of the Lyon & Healy collection of rare old violins, violas, viloncellos, bows of rare makes, 1929 › scan 23
Scan 23
A catalogue of the Lyon & Healy collection of rare old violins, violas, viloncellos, bows of rare makes, 1929
16 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1ANTONIUS AND HIERONIMUS AMATI, CREMONA, 1595
3Number 8169. THE KING HENRY IV. Nearly fifty years before the birth of Antonius Stradivarius, this magnificent instrument was completed by the master builders of their time — Antonius and Hieronimus Amati, of Cremona, in the year 1595. Its record shows that it was "made for Henry IV, King of France and Navarre" and its period, therefore, dates back almost to the very beginning of violin history.
5Close upon half a century was to elapse before the birth of Antonius Stradivarius. Nicola Amati had not yet been born and one hundred and thirty-five years were to pass before Joseph Guarnerius would give to the world his great treasures.
7The violin was beginning to attain popularity in Italy, and reports had reached Paris of the remarkable work of the brothers Amati in Cremona. This was thirteen years before a violin part was to appear for the first time in an operatic score. Violins were used to accompany the voice in song and occupied a unique position in church service.
9So it was that a set of violins was ordered by the King of France for his chapel. They remained in the possession of the court until the French Revolution, when they were destroyed or lost in the attack on Versailles, with the one known exception of this particular instrument.
11Among the king's courtiers was a music-loving cavalier, Francois de Bassompierre, then Marshall of France and later ambassador to the court of Queen Elizabeth, at London. His memoirs show him to have been a passionate lover of music and to have had in his suite, his own orchestra, composed of the best musicians of the time. When not engaged in one of his many military campaigns he devoted his time to music and other arts.
13This violin passed into his hands probably as a gift from the king. According to a Latin inscription by J. B. Cartier, chef d'orchestre of Louis XVIII, written in ink in the back of the violin, it remained in the possession of his family for two hundred years. (See Plates X and XI.) Probably no other violin in existence has a more interesting history.
15The Henry IV was brought to the United States by the late R. D. Hawley, of Hartford, Connecticut, who secured it through the medium of Mr. George Hart, of Hart & Sons, Wardour Street, London, in 1879. Mr. Hawley permitted himself to sell it to his life-long friend and colleague, Mr. Albert Pitkin. It remained Mr. Pitkin's property until pur-
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