Scan 151
Voice and violin : sketches, anecdotes, and reminiscences, 1898
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 131. See the scan on archive.org.
1Sebastian Klotz had a curious manner of marking his violins, in the inside, with his initials, S. K., which seems to have escaped the notice of all dealers, or at least of all writers, up to the present time. The violin by this maker alluded to as having been purchased in 1824, had been inherited by the Rev. Mr. Wren, then of Stafford, a relation of the great architect of St. Paul's Cathedral. At the time of its purchase it had been lying untouched in his house for nearly half a century, and the back was terribly worm-eaten. It had always passed as a Stradivarius instrument, and was valued accordingly. The late Mr. George Hart, a well-known London expert, and author of a book on violins, saw this violin, and felt convinced that it was by Lorenzo Guadagnini, the most celebrated of all the workmen of Stradivarius, with whom he laboured for thirty-five years, and whose violins, during the remaining five years of his career, and ever since, have been all dealt with as Stradivarius instruments. It was in this violin that I discovered the initials S. K., which could belong to no other maker than Sebastian Klotz.
3Very little is known of the life of the celebrated Antonio Stradivarius, or of his sons, Francesco and Omobono, who carried on his business after 1737. Still less is known of the Klotz family. One of the older members of the latter worked with Jacob Stainer, and followed his patterns more or less exclusively; and many of these violins have doubtless
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