Books › A short account of a violin by Stradivari, dated 1690 : now in the possession of Messrs. W. E. Hill & sons, 1889 › scan 18
Scan 18
A short account of a violin by Stradivari, dated 1690 : now in the possession of Messrs. W. E. Hill & sons, 1889
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1surpassed; but what appears to me peculiar to the tone of Stradivari is a more unlimited capacity for expressing the most varied accents of feeling. . . . ."
3The record of the instrument for the second century of its existence is complete; and there is a strong presumption as to its previous history. The interesting document (a facsimile copy of which is annexed), in the possession of Messrs. Hill & Sons, shows that in 1794 the violin passed from the hands of Signor G. F. Mosell, of Florence, into those of Mr. David Ker, of Portavoe, in Ireland, for the sum of about £25.
5Signor Mosell's statement that the violin originally belonged to the Court of Tuscany points to the strong probability of its having been one of the Concerto of instruments supplied by Stradivari in 1690 to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III de Medici. The Concerto consisted of five instruments—two violins, a violoncello and two violas. The violins and violoncello were ordered in 1684 by one Marquis Ariberti, but appear not to have been completed until 1690, when they were presented by the Marquis to the Grand Duke, who thereupon gave an order to Stradivari for the two instruments required to complete the Concerto.
7How the violin came to be removed from the Court remains a matter of conjecture. When the Duchy, in 1734, passed away from the family of the Medici, the great art patrons of Italy, the musical collections may have been less jealously guarded, and many opportunities may have occurred for the "improper removal" hinted at in the document cited above. But the statement, which we have at first hand, of Mosell's position at the Court, and the peculiar opportunities
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