Lutherie

From the Archive: October 1950

2020-09-20T01:06:00

StradOct1950

Kenneth Warren makes a pilgrimage to Oxford to view Stradivari’s famed ‘Messiah’ violin – an undoubted highlight of the respected US violin dealer’s career

The word “Messiah” means many things to many people, but to one who deals in fine violins, plays them and looks upon them as something far more than saleable items, it can only have one connotation. I refer, of course, to the Stradivari of all Stradivaris now permanently housed in the Hill Room of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England. This instrument had been known to me throughout my adult life, but despite numerous visits to England, I had never seen it. My failure to view this extraordinary specimen became somewhat of an obsession. While in London this June I broached the subject to Mr. Albert Phillips Hill and a visit was forthwith arranged.

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