A violin by Antonio Stradivari

The ‘Havemeyer’ has an interesting history, having been sold by many of the most important violin dealerships in the world including: George Hart, J & A Beare, William Lewis & Son, The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, Florian Leonhard, and Sotheby’s.

The violin’s earliest known owner was George Hart Sr., a renowned 19th century violin dealer in London, who sold the violin to Henry O. Havemeyer, from whom it received its name. Henry was one of 9 children and the son of Frederick Christian Havemeyer Jr., who inherited his sugar refining business from his father Frederick Christian Havemeyer Sr. and his uncle William Havemeyer. Born in 1847, Henry took over the Havemeyers & Elder Sugar Refining Company in 1868, marrying first Mary Louise Elder in 1870 before divorcing her and marrying her niece Louisine W. Elder in 1883.

Henry and Louisine built a large collection of art, thought to have included at least three Strads and a Guarneri ‘del Gesù’. Much of the collection was bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, after Louisine’s death in 1929 and is described by the Met as “unparalleled groupings of works by Corot, Courbet, and Manet, Monet, Cézannes, and Degas [as well as] encompassing Rembrandts and El Grecos”. Henry added this violin to the collection in 1885 and, upon his death in 1907, it passed to his estate.

Isabelle Mitchell, about whom little is known, bought the violin from the Havemeyer estate. Following Isabelle’s death the ‘ex-Havemeyer’ was sold in 1946 to Paul Bernard, formerly the second violinist of the Musical Arts String Quartet, through the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company. Bernard also owned the violin until his death, at which point it was inherited by his daughter Anne B. Pfeiffer.