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Giovanni Battista Viotti, after whom this violin is named, was the great Italian virtuoso who was possibly the most important player in the story of the Stradivari violin. It was he who seized on its tonal strength and introduced it to a wide audience through his expressive technique. He owned and played on several great Stradivaris which still bear his name; confusingly enough, two are dated 1709. One now belongs to the Royal Academy of Music in London, while this violin, also known as the ‘Marie Hall’ after a later owner, presently belongs to the ChiMei Foundation of Taiwan. It was on this instrument that Viotti played his first concerts in Paris in 1781 which established his reputation. It is a wonderful example of the “Golden Period” which Stradivari entered in about 1700, after the experiment with his “Long Pattern”. After thirty years of steady development since his earliest work of 1666, Stradivari’s “Golden Period” instruments mark a quantum leap in design and execution at a time when Antonio was in, by the standards of the time, late middle-age. He had evidently found considerable fame and a comfortable wealth, and was now assisted in the workshop by two sons, Francesco (born in 1671) and Omobono (born in 1679).
Two new violin forms were made in the workshop, marked “P” (assumed to mean prima or fi rst) and “G” (for grande), dated 1705 and 1708 respectively, both slightly shorter but significantly broader than previous models.
Some superb wood was acquired in this period, and the one-piece maple backs used are frequently of dazzling and fl awless beauty. This “Viotti” is outstanding among them, with a deeply rippled and consistent flame seared across the back from edge to edge. Even the head is made from this handsome wood, which is a particular challenge to carve due to its twisting grain. Other makers often deliberately chose plainer cuts of wood in order to simplify the task.
Comparison with the “Kustendyke” will show clearly the changes Stradivari made. The arching is lower and stronger, with a flatter run-out to the edges. The model is broader, made on the smaller of the new forms, the “P”, with proportionally wider edges and sturdier corners, all executed with great grace and artistry. The purfling is actually more delicate, with thinner black lines, but a slightly broader white core than before, and with beautifully turned points. The head is much like that of the “Kustendyke”, and the black edging is still clearly visible, as are the small point marks around the centre line by which Stradivari laid out the pattern of the scroll on the wood block. Overall, the violin is more powerful in appearance, and also in tone. Little of the characteristic red varnish has survived, but the ground layer and the golden tint of the wood is largely intact.
Viotti spent much of his career in London, and died there in 1824 in relative poverty. Many of his instruments had already been disposed of, but those remaining were auctioned at the Hotel Bouillon in Paris in the same year. This violin was acquired by the Duke of Cambridge for the price of £152. It later came to the London dealer George Hart who sold it 1905 for £1,600 to Marie Hall, the great British virtuoso and protégé of Edward Elgar. It became her lifetime companion, and her sole concert instrument until her death in 1956. The “Viotti” passed to her daughter Pauline Baring, who eventually sold the violin through Sotheby’s of London in 1968. It was bought by a businessman, Jack Harrison, for the then record auction price of £22,000. He then sold it through W. E. Hill & Sons in 1974, but it returned to Sotheby’s for auction in 1988, to set another auction price record of £473,000. The buyer was a Brazilian amateur violinist, Geraldo Modern, who sold it on within a few years to its present owners, the ChiMei Foundation.
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