A violin by
Antonio Stradivari

"...A violin said to have been the favorite instrument of Henri Vieuxtemps …" Ernest Doring, How Many Strads

A jewel of the “Golden Period,” this violin is one of two Stradivaris from 1710 to have belonged to the legendary virtuoso Henri Vieuxtemps.

The earliest known history of this instrument begins in the late 1860s, when reportedly Count Stroganoff of St. Petersburg presented it to the young Belgian prodigy. Vieuxtemps repeatedly denied the most persistent and ardent collector of the day, Duc de Camposelice, from procuring both this Stradivari and his Guarneri del Gesu. He held on to both instruments until his death in 1881.

The Duke did finally purchase the Stradivari, but died just a few years later in 1887. His widow consigned the instrument to W.E. Hill & Sons in 1891, who sold it to violinist Percy Woodgate.

From Woodgate, the “Vieuxtemps” passed through the dealership of George Hart of London to the firm of Hamma and Co. in May 1900. Emil Hamma was rapidly putting his business on the map. In 1895 he brokered the sale of the "Lady Blunt" Stradivari to the Frankfurt collector Charles Edler, and in fact purchased the "Vieuxtemps" along with the "D’Egville" del Gesu to use for promotion.

Hamma sold the "Vieuxtemps" Stradivari in January 1901 to the lawyer, Leopold Geissmar of Mannheim. The negotiations are captured in several letters from Hamma to Geissmar.

<< PHOTO: excerpt of letter, text reads… “Joachim was absolutely delighted with the violin, but startled, just like me, how his two violins are inferior in terms of sound!! He said to me, I congratulate whoever acquires this wonderful violin!” >>

Upon Geissmar’s death in 1918, the violin was inherited by his daughter, Berta, who became Wilhelm Furtwängler’s private secretary and concert manager. She fled Germany with the violin before the Second World war and became the personal assistant to Thomas Beecham. In 1936, she entrusted the violin to the Hills for safe-keeping and they placed it with friends outside London. The collector Robert A. Bower of Somerset looked after the violin for most of the war years. He owned several great instruments including Vieuxtemps’ del Gesu as well as the "Lady Blunt" Stradivari. The "Vieuxtemps" was in very good company.

Berta Geissmar died in 1949 and the ownership of the violin reverted to her mother, who lived until 1954. The Hills maintained possession of the "Vieuxtemps" until 1961 when it was delivered to Else Geissmar in Seattle, WA. She kept the violin until 2003 when it was sold to the Chicago collector, Howard Gottlieb. In 2011, Rare Violins of New York sold the “Vieuxtemps” on behalf of Gottlieb.

Remarkably, this violin remained out of circulation for over a century. During that time, all the major publications on Stradivari were printed, and while the existence and greatness of the “Vieuxtemps” was documented, its description was never accurately represented. Aside from the pictures used by Hamma in his 1901 catalogue, no photographs were taken for over 100 years.

There are several references to the "Vieuxtemps" in the Hill diaries including: "A finer Strad or Guarnerius from a tone point of view hardly exists."

Since there has been no wear or damage to the violin in the past century, we can safely say that there are now very few violins that are comparable to the "Vieuxtemps," in both condition and sound.