A violin by
Antonio Stradivari

The first owner of this Stradivari violin that we know of is Lord Sydney Stern Wandsworth (1844 - 1912) who purchased it from George Chanot of London around 1870.

He was a British banker, Liberal Member of Parliament, philanthropist and member of the Stern banking family. He left an estate of over £1.5m, most of which went to charity and over 2/3 was used to found a preparatory school and college. The violin was left in Wandsworth’s will to a Colonel Thompson who sold it in 1914 to W. E. Hill & Sons.

The following year the Stradivari was sold to the Toronto firm of R. S. Williams & Sons. The Canadian business which built and sold instruments, including pianos, player pianos and organs, already had a branch in London by 1905. The founder’s son, Richard Sugden Williams Jr (1874-1945) was an expert in violins and collected several fine examples including at least 3 Stradivaris. He employed several makers to produce instruments on Stradivari models. At one point he owned 166 instruments and many manuscripts which were donated to the Royal Ontario Museum.

In 1916 the Czech virtuoso violinist, Karel Ondricek (1865 - 1943), purchased the Stradivari. Ondricek had studied briefly at the Prague Conservatory and was involved in many premiere performances of pieces by Dvorak. He came to the US in 1893 and was concertmaster in the early days of the Boston Symphony. He was also second violin in the Kneisel Quartet from 1899 - 1902 before founding his own ensemble.

The ”Lord Wandsworth” was sold to the Boston violin maker Ole Henry Bryant in 1934. Bryant (1873 – 1943) was one of the finest American makers, and by 1910 had opened a shop and violin making school on Huntington Avenue, directly opposite Symphony Hall. Although he is sometimes referred to as the “American Vuillaume” the makers he employed generally signed their own work. He was the main repairman for the Boston Symphony players and consequently always had access to fine instruments. Among his customers were Efrem Zimbalist and industrialist Henry Ford.

There is no record of the Stradivari during the next 40 years, other than it being played at the Stradivarius Memorial Concert on December 20, 1937 at Carnegie Hall. At some point before 1974 it was donated to the University of Nevada, Reno where it remained until it was sold by Rare Violins of New York.