ASCRIBED TO ANTONIO AND OMOBONO STRADIVARI

A COMPOSITE VIOLIN KNOWN AS THE BALDIANI, CIRCA 1730

Details

ASCRIBED TO ANTONIO AND OMOBONO STRADIVARI
A COMPOSITE VIOLIN KNOWN AS THE BALDIANI, CIRCA 1730
Labeled Antonius Stradivarius Cremonensis Faciebat Anno 1730, length of back 14 1/16 in (357 mm) with case (4)

Provenance

The Countess Baldiani
Suzanne Chaigneau
Fridolin Hamma
Dr. Wolfgang Kuhn

The first reference to the violin's ownership was made by Alfred Hill in his letter dated April 18th 1933 where he writes ...the instrument depicted as one which formerly belonged to an Italian Countess of the name Baldiani with whom I was personally acquainted, in years gone by. Continuing he relates I, subsequently came across the violin again, it had been sold, either by Fischesser, a Paris luthier, or direct by the Countess herself prior to her death...
The authentication letter from Lèon Fischesser was issued to a Mademoiselle Suzanne Chaigneau in 1907. A well know Parisian violinist, Chaigneau was the daughter in-law of virtuoso Joseph Joachim and mother of the celebrated French soprano Irène Joachim.
In 1933 the violin changed ownership through the Stuttgart shop of Hamma and Company to a Dr. Wolfgang Kuhn. Since that date, ownership has been passed down through three generations of the Kuhn family.

Literature

Violins and Violinists, July 1942 pp. 241, 243
E, Doring, How Many Strads? Our Heritage From The Master, Chicago 1999, pp. 297, 423
H. Goodkind, Violin Iconography of Antonio Stradivari, New York, 1972, pp. 737, 741, 748

Lot Essay

Certificates: Hamma and Company, Stuttgart, April 25, 1933, with photographs attached; Otto Möckel, Berlin, July 7, 1933, with photographs attached

Sold with the accompanying letters: Lèon Fischesser, Paris, July 22, 1907; William E. Hill and Sons, London, April 18, 1933 with photographs attached; Georg Heimer, Vienna, July 12, 1936
Dendrochronology analysis, John Topham, Redhill, May 31, 2008

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