Notable Sales: Antonio Stradivari | Violin, 1699
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Lady Tennant
Cremona, 1699
labelled Antonius Stradiuarius Cremonensis Faciebat Anno 1699
length of back 35.5cm.
Described by the Strad Magazine as the first Stradivari of the Golden Period, the ‘Lady Tennant’ was owned by Charles Philippe Lafont, a French composer and violinist, until his death in 1839. Lafont served as chamber violinist to both Tsar Alexander I of Russia and King Louis XVIII of France. In a competition in Milan in 1816, he tied for first place with Niccolò Paganini. After his death, the violin was acquired by John Alvey Turner, founder of the London-based music shop of the same name. At the time his shop sold fine Italian stringed instruments, although it has moved towards specialisation in banjos since the invention of the modern banjo in the mid-19th century.
In 1856 the violin was bought by Daniel Parry, who sold it on to C.B. Dyer in 1874. At the time of his death in 1896 the ‘Lady Tennant’ passed to his widow, who sold it to W.E. Hill & Sons. Hill & Sons sold the violin in 1900 to Sir Charles Tennant who gave the violin as a gift to his wife, the Lady Tennant, a keen amateur violinist. Lady Tennant passed the violin to her daughter, Katherine Elliot, herself an accomplished violinist as well as an organist and graduate of the London School of Economics. At the age of 55 she was created Baroness Elliot of Harwood and appointed to the UK Parliament House of Lords, where she was the first peeress to speak in the House.
Baroness Elliot sold the ‘Lady Tennant’ to Max Möller & Son in 1937, from whom it was bought by Bernhard Sprengel, a German chocolate manufacturer and art collector, in 1944. In 1981, the violin was bought by Edith Dittrich, a violin maker in Switzerland.
Dittrich consigned the ‘Lady Tennant’ to Sotheby’s for sale at auction in November 1983. Here we illustrate Sotheby’s catalogue entry. The violin appeared at auction again 22 years later when it was sold at Christies for just over USD 2,000,000.
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