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Bearing a label of 1714, the "Da Vinci" is lighter in style than some instruments of this date, and has slender, upright soundholes and narrower corners. The one piece back with fine flame is of magnificent quality. The dramatic figuring combined with the lustrious varnish probably gave.The violin its romantic name- there is of course no real connection to the artist.
The violin is described in Ernest Doring’s book How Many Strads, published in 1945, and is first documented in a receipt from Chardon & Fils, the Paris dealers, in 1888. It had previously belonged to the Vicomte de Janze, and enthusiastic collector of the time. It belonged briefl y to another French enthusiast, M. Fourchy, but passed through the hands of many of the leading European dealers until it was brought to the U.S.A. in 1924 by Erich Lachmann. The dealer Emil Herrman then sold it to Toscha Seidel, the Odessa born violinist and pupil of Leopold Auer who took up residence in America. Seidel, incidentally, gave violin lessons to Albert Einstein, presumably using this violin. Seidel died in 1962, and the “Da Vinci” next appeared at Sotheby’s of London in 1974. It now belongs to the Munetsugu Collection of Japan.
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