The Strad Calendar 2026: 1691 ‘Leopold Auer’ Antonio Stradivari violin

Canimex has been loaning fine instruments to players for more than two decades. The Strad Calendar 2026 showcases twelve of these treasures, including five by Antonio Stradivari, two by Guarneri ‘del Gesù’, two by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini and – a first for the Calendar – a modern octobass.

1691 ‘Leopold Auer’ Antonio Stradivari violin

Leopold Auer was one of the most successful violin pedagogues of all time. Many of his students, including Jascha Heifetz, Nathan Milstein, Mischa Elman, Efrem Zimbalist, Toscha Seidel, Kathleen Parlow and Oscar Shumsky, became world-famous soloists. Auer was also a fine player in his own right, with Tchaikovsky praising the ‘great expressivity, the thoughtful finesse and poetry’ of his playing. Auer later became the dedicatee of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.

Auer appears to have acquired the 1691 Stradivari that bears his name at some point while he was teaching in Russia, although that covers a period of almost 50 years. When he died in 1930 it became the property of his wife Wanda, who sold it on via Lyon & Healy four years later.

In the 1950s it was bought by the violinist Michael Davis, another dedicated tutor who taught for 30 years at Ohio State University. He was also concertmaster of the Scottish National Orchestra, Columbus Symphony, Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra and the Columbus Bach Ensemble.

The violin is 358mm long and relatively wide in the lower bouts. The table is made from one piece of spruce of regular grain, while the back plate is also of one piece of irregularly flamed maple. The scroll may have been carved by Antonio’s son Omobono. The varnish is of a red–brown colour and, given it has seen so much playing, the instrument as a whole has survived remarkably well although the scroll shows more signs of wear.

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Photos: Canimex