The Strad Calendar 2026: 1712 ‘Viotti, Hottinger’ 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.

1712 ‘Viotti, Hottinger’ Antonio Stradivari violin

The 1712 ‘Viotti, Hottinger’ Stradivari violin is one of several to bear the name of Giovanni Battista Viotti, one of the most prominent soloists and pedagogues of the 19th century. It is recorded that Viotti played on ten different Strads during his lifetime; this one remained with him to the end of his life in 1824, even though he was plagued with debt.

In his will he left it to his benefactor, Margaret Chinnery, a wealthy patron of the arts who had offered him lodgings back in 1801. It then passed through several hands until it arrived in the collection of Henry Hottinger, who endeavoured to collect the finest examples of each of the Cremonese masters, and one example from each period of the working lives of Stradivari and Guarneri ‘del Gesù’.

The Hills were particularly enamoured of this instrument, saying in their seminal book on Stradivari: ‘The year 1712 provides us with a superb example – the violin used by Viotti until his death… It is of the maker’s largest and boldest form, extremely handsome in appearance, the tone being remarkable for luscious maturity of quality and sympathetic responsiveness to the lightest possible touch of bow and finger. The noble beauty of its tone seems to us to echo the elevated style of Viotti’s compositions and his broad and impassioned playing.’ It is now in the hands of the violinist and conductor Fedor Rudin, a prizewinner at the Paganini, Enescu and Marteau violin competitions and the former concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Click here to purchase The Strad Calendar 2026

Read more lutherie articles here

Photos: Canimex