Antonio Stradivari 1703
"MILANOLLO - HEMBERT"
At the turn of the century Stradivari was a mature man.
Despite the fact that he was almost sixty
years of age, he did not leave his workshop but kept working
incessantly in the twenty years to
follow crafting the finest products ever made in the history
of violin-making.
The instruments built at the beginning of the Eighteenth
Century are a sort of showcase, fine
examples of what the master foresaw and had in store for the
future ahead. George Hart described
this short but intense period: “From about 1700 his
instruments show to us much of that which
follows later. The outline is changed, but the curves,
blending one with another, are beautiful in the
extreme. The corners are treated differently. The wood used
for the backs and sides is most
handsome, having a broad curl. The scrolls are of bold
conception, and finely executed. The varnish
also is very rich, and leaves nothing to be desired.”1 Also
the renowned Hill Brothers wrote about
the characteristics of the instruments from that time: “The
varnish is of a beautiful soft texture and
fine orange-red tint colour; the wood of the backs is
invariably of broad markings, more generally
in two pieces, and that of the bellies is still inclined to
be close in the grain.”2
The violin Milanollo bears an original label “Antonius
Stradivarius Cremonensis Faciebat Anno
1703”,
of which only the first figure is printed. In the opinion of Prof. Claudio
Amighetti, teacher of
Restoration at the renowned Scuola di Liuteria in Cremona,
the label states 1708 and not 1703.
Since he had the opportunity to hold the instrument in his
hands, Prof. Amighetti is convinced for
several reasons that it was manufactured later than 1703: “At
first it reminded me very much of the
Engleman from 1709 because of the shape of the F-holes,
particularly refined in the upper part,
besides its rounded form and the delicate purfling”, said
Prof. Amighetti. “The years around 1708
and 1709 are characterised by F-holes particularly curved
with long and slender edges, slightly
hook-shaped, which remind very much of the works between
1695 and 1699, the last period of the
‘long Strad’. It seems like Stradivari thought the F-holes
over and went back to a type that he used
ten years earlier. Soon after the Cremonese master returned
to the model of the G form that brought
him into the most mature part of the ‘golden period’. Being
dubious on the label, I checked it under
the light of Wood, applying a filtrated ultraviolet light to
it, thus, it became undoubtedly clear that
the last digit is an 8 and not a 3.”, Prof. Amighetti concluded.
The name Milanollo was given to the violin because this was
at a certain point the instrument of
Teresa Milanollo, the famous Italian violinist of the
Nineteenth Century, who often played in
concert together with her younger sister Maria-Margherita,
succeeding in a brilliant career
throughout Europe. Henry Charles Lahee reported that “The
two sisters […] were called, on account
of their most striking characteristics Mlle. Staccato and
Mlle. Adagio.”3
The name Hembert was a later acquisition, having the violin
been owned also by G. Hembert, a
French collector, who was a pupil of the violinist Marius
Casadeus.
The Milanollo has a two-piece back of handsome maple,
characterised by a broad curl starting from
the joint and descending towards the flanks. The sides and
the head are also made of maple, with a
less pronounced curl. The head in particular was poetically
described by Marcel Vatelot: “Eclisses
en magnifique érable à ondes un peu plus douces.”4 The table
is in two pieces of pine with a fine
grain in the centre that broadens on the flanks. The varnish
is of a warm orange-red-brown colour
applied over a golden base.
Overall, the violin was judged by William Henley as “A very
beautiful instrument”5.
In fact, the Milanollo is not only made of a superb wood but
its acoustic qualities are also excellent,
as recorded by the Swiss dealer Henry Werro in his
certificate: “Eine sehr feine Tongeige in sehr
gutem Zustand.”6
W. Henley provided the information regarding the first known
owner of the violin: “The musical
instrument maker, Nicolas Darche of Aix La Chapelle, stated
that this instrument had been owned
by Ronald Stephenson, a London banker and collector who had
possessed several Strads, the
collection having been dispersed by public sale in 1840.”7 The
information provided by Darche
must be accurate as he acquired the violin directly from
Stephenson’s collection in 1840 and sold it
the following year to J. Milanollo, father of Teresa and
Maria-Margherita. The oldest daughter of
Milanollo played the instrument for more than five years and
in 1851 her father sold it to the Count
Amadée Berthe de Pommery of Nancy, France for the sum of
1,500 francs8. In 1880 the Milanollo
was bought by Georges Floch, a lawyer and fellow-citizen of
the Count. Subsequently it was owned
by the violinist J. Lombard, and afterward by a collector
from St. Marie aux Mines in Alsace, by the
name of Koenig. After the death of Koenig, around 1939, the
instrument was in the hands of the
French violinist and composer Marius Casadesus, who
performed with it in public for several years.
At a certain point Casadesus handed it down to his pupil,
the French collector G. Hembert. In 1967
the Milanollo was possessed by the Swiss Dr. Daniel Bach of
Lausanne, who sold it to a private
owner in Venice, Italy, on the 7th of November 1983, through
the dealer Peter Biddulph.
The Milanollo was exhibited in La Chaux-de-Fond9,
Switzerland, in 1993, and in Castel S.
Angelo10, Roma, Italy, in 2001.
The two instruments owned by the sisters Teresa and Maria
Margherita Milanollo, the violin
Dragonetti / Milanollo from 1728 and the Herbert / Milanollo,
were reunited for some time in the
prestigious collection of the current owner of the latter.
Subsequently the Dragonetti / Milanollo was
exchanged for the Crown Prince Frederick William of Prussia of
1703, and the instruments were
‘separated’ once again. In October 2004, for the centenary
of the death of Teresa Milanollo, the two
violins of the sisters Milanollo were exhibited in
Savigliano, Italy.
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