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The Wirth is a very fine and strongly constructed violin of the “Golden Period”. The medium width flame of the jointed back slopes upward from the centre, matched by the wood of the ribs and scroll. The head is particularly fine, the outline still crisp and well-defined, with a slightly more delicate eye than is sometimes found in the heavier built examples of this period. The soundholes are prominent on the front, large and open, but cut with great precision, recalling other famous examples such as the “Messie” and “Soil” of 1714. Th e back is marked with some old woodworm repairs in the lower bouts, but the instrument is otherwise in remarkable condition, and well covered with original varnish of the most brilliant red colour and soft texture.
Many of Stradivari’s instruments can be identifi ed in groups or even pairs, so strong is the similarity of wood, style and model, and it is obvious that there were generally several instruments under construction in the workshop at any one time. In the case of the Wirth, the close connection to another celebrated violin, the ‘Huberman’, is obvious. Both were made in the same year, and it could be imagined even the same month. The wood for these two instruments clearly came from the same log, and with the flame arranged in the less common upward inclination.
The violin is named after Emanuel Wirth, the second violinist of the Joachim quartet, but is first recorded in the possession of Nicolas Mori, an English-born pupil of Viotti. On his death in 1839, the violin was acquired by the London dealer John Hart. From him it entered the notable collection of Louis d’Egville in 1869, and then to a Dutch violinist, Jan de Graan from whom Emanuel Wirth obtained it. Wirth died in Berlin in 1923, and the violin became the possession of Max Adler of Chicago. In 2005 the Chicago violin dealers Bein & Fushi sold it to the present owners, the ChiMei Foundation.
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