Notable Sales: Antonio Stradivari | Violin, 1721
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Lady Blunt
Cremona, 1721
labelled Antonius Stradiuarius Faciebat Cremonensis Anno 1721 AS
length of back 35.7cm.
The 1721 ‘Lady Blunt’ is one of the most famous violins ever made, having twice achieved a world record price at auction. In addition, along with the 1716 ‘Messiah’, the ‘Lady Blunt’ is one of the best preserved Stradivaris in existence. The above images, from Herbert Goodkind’s book, Violin Iconography of Antonio Stradivari, show its incredible preservation for over 300 years of existence.
The violin’s first recorded owner was Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, seen here in his workshop, who owned it from 1860-1864, when it was bought by Lady Anne Blunt, seen here in the Arabian desert, from whom the violin received its name.
Lady Blunt was the daughter of Ada Lovelace, a famous English mathematician and writer, and granddaughter of Lord Byron, the prominent poet and politician. She was a skilled amateur violinist and equestrienne, as well as a speaker of French, German, Italian, Spanish and Arabic. Her interest in horses, as well as her husband’s interest in Middle Eastern politics, led her to become the first European woman to ride through the Arabian desert to reach the city of Ha’il. Lady Blunt is thought to have bought the violin on the recommendation of her teacher, Leopold Jansa, an Austrian composer best known for teaching the Czech virtuoso Wilma Neruda, (later Lady Hallé), as well as the Viennese composer Karl Goldmark.
Lady Blunt sold the violin through Emil Hamma to Charles Edler in 1895. Edler was a prominent violin collector who owned seven Strads. He sold the ‘Lady Blunt’ just one year later to Baron Johann Knoop, described by the Strad Magazine as having ‘one of the finest private collections of stringed instruments in history’. He is thought to have amassed a collection of around 40 instruments, including 19 by Stradivari, as well as others by makers such as Pietro Guarneri, Giuseppe Guarneri ‘del Gesu’, Antonio & Girolamo Amati, and G.B. Guadagnini. There are no fewer than three Strads today which bear his name: The 1698 ‘Baron Knoop’, the 1715 ‘Alard, Baron Knoop’, and the 1715 ‘Baron Knoop, Bevan’.
In 1900 the ‘Lady Blunt’ was sold through W.E. Hill & Sons to J.E. Street, an amateur violinist and underwriter of Lloyds of London. Street sold the ‘Lady Blunt’ in 1915 to Richard Bennett, a prominent collector who owned over 20 Strads and over 40 instruments in total. Another eminent 20th century collector and violin expert, Robert Augustus Bower, bought the ‘Lady Blunt’ from Bennett in 1941 and sold it on immediately to Jean Werro. Werro and his father were both violin makers. Jean graduated from the Markneukirchen School of Violin Making with highest honours and, with his father, went on to win gold at the 1927 Geneva violin competition.
Sam Bloomfield (above) bought the ‘Lady Blunt’ in 1959 and sold it to Robin Loh through Sotheby’s in their June 1971 auction, for a record-breaking £84,000 ($201,600). The previous record had been just shy of £22,000 ($52,000). Loh, an Indonesian industrialist and shipping magnate, retained possession of the violin for nearly 30 years, during which time he also bought another of Sam Bloomfield’s violins, the 1743 ‘Baron Heath’ Guarneri, in Sotheby’s Bloomfield Sale of November 1988. Loh sold the ‘Lady Blunt’ through Andrew Hill in 2000 to an anonymous buyer and then again in 2008 to the Nippon Music Foundation, before it was finally sold by Tarisio in 2011 for another record of £9.8 million. It was bought by an anonymous buyer, with whom it remains.
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