Books › The "Tuscan". A short account of a violin by Stradivari, made for Cosimo de Medici, Grand duke of Tuscany, dated 1690, 1891 › scan 24
Scan 24
The "Tuscan". A short account of a violin by Stradivari, made for Cosimo de Medici, Grand duke of Tuscany, dated 1690, 1891
4 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1pictures—one a fine Leonardo da Vinci, and the other a head by Raffaelle—both of which are preserved in the family. He brought the violin home to Ireland and put it away in some obscure place of safety in one of his houses in that kingdom (locally known as "Glory Holes") where it remained perdu for more than fifty years; although diligently searched for in several houses by other members of the family its existence was ignored by the successor to the property, who was engrossed in the absorbing pursuit of book-collecting. The violin no doubt owes its wonderful preservation to this apparent indifference on the part of its new owners, for, as a well-known musical writer, the Revd. H. R. Haweis, has said—"it is the collector who keeps them for years unstrung, and the violinists who lay them by, and neither play upon them nor lend them about, who are the real benefactors and conservers of the Cremona gems."
3In the year 1847 Mr. Richard Ker, a grandson of the original purchaser, ascertained, when on a visit to his family in Ireland, that the violin had at last been found, and he identified it at once by the original receipt, quoted above, which was found inside the case. The circumstances in which the discovery was made have been communicated to Messrs. Hill by Mr. R. Ward, a connection and neighbour of the Ker family in the north of Ireland, and mark an interesting epoch in the history of the violin. About the year 1845, Portavo House, the residence of Mr. David Ker (son of the original purchaser) was destroyed by fire, and the family took refuge at Bangor Castle, Belfast, Mr. Ward's seat. Among the chattels rescued from the fire and conveyed to the Castle was found the
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.