A violin by Antonio Stradivari

The first record of ownership of the 1709 ‘ex-Viotti; ex-Marie Hall’ is that of a Mr French, who sold the violin, likely in the late 18th century, to John Betts, a violin and bow maker in England. The famed Italian virtuoso, Giovanni Batista Viotti, said to have been friends with both Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven and who lent his name to the violin, bought the violin from Betts before it found its way back to England in 1817 when it was acquired by Prince Adolphus Frederick, Duke of Cambridge.

The now ‘ex-Viotti’ stayed in the family for many years, passing to Prince Adolfus’s son, Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, upon the former’s death in 1850. It was subsequently bought by the aide-de-camp (a confidential assistant in the British military) to Duke of Cambridge, General Stevens in circa 1892. Stevens did not keep the instrument as long as its previous owners, however, selling it to George Hart in 1904.

The violinist Marie Hall, from whom the violin received the second part of its name, bought the ‘ex-Viotti; ex-Marie Hall’ from George Hart in 1905 when she was just 21. Five years later she toured through South Africa for a fee of £10,000, the largest amount ever paid to a violinist at the time. She also helped Ralph Vaughan-Williams complete The Lark Ascending, resulting in its dedication to her. Marie Hall owned and played the violin until her death in 1956, when it was passed to her daughter, Pauline Baring.

Baring sold the violin at Sotheby’s in 1968, where it was bought by Jack Morrison for £22,000, setting a record price for a Stradivari sold at auction. Morrison sold it again in 1974 to Tun Datu Mustapha through W. E. Hill & Sons. Mustapha, a Malaysian politician, sold the ‘ex-Viotti; ex-Marie Hall’ through Sotheby’s once again in 1988 for £430,000, setting a record once again. The violin was bought by Geraldo Modern, a Brazilian collector who owned at least three violins by Stradivari. In 1991 the violin was bought by the Chi-Mei Culture Foundation, which founded the Chimei private museum in Taiwan in 1992.

The ‘ex-Viotti; ex-Marie Hall’ remains in the Chimei Museum’s collection today.