This violin is first recorded as having been sold by W.E. Hill & Sons in London in 1952. It is a representative example from the maker’s earlier Venetian period, both tonally and visually. The instrument has a rich, clear, and focused sound across all registers and would make a superb concert partner for any musician, as well as a fine addition to a distinguished collection. The violin was in the possession of Siegmund Nissel from the early 1950s until the late 1960s, and it features on many of the Amadeus Quartet’s recordings from that period, perhaps most notably their first complete cycle of the Beethoven string quartets, recorded in 1960-63. The violin passed directly from Nissel to the current owner and, since then, has been played by a member of the Auryn Quartet in over 3,000 concerts worldwide across nearly four decades.