Notable Sales: Antonio Stradivari | Violin, 1707
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La Cathédrale
Cremona, 1707
labelled Antonius Stradiuarius Cremonensis Faciebat Anno 1707
length of back 35.6cm.
There is some debate around the origin of the name ‘La Cathédrale’. Some sources report that it was named for the “majesty of its tone”, while others argue the name was coined by either the French musician Jean Baptiste Cartier, violinist to Queen Marie Antoinette and owner of the violin in the early 19th century or the napoleonic officer from whom he is thought to have bought the instrument.
‘La Cathédrale’ was sold by Cartier to Pierre David in 1831, who owned it until he sold it to M. Émile Lemoine in 1872. The violin was bought by Hamma & Co. of Stuttgart in 1949, having just reopened their doors after their shop was destroyed during WWII. They sold the instrument in 1955 to the French composer Marius Casadesus, who put it up for auction at Sotheby’s in 1984, where it sold to Michel Scheinin for a record $483,000. The sale made ‘La Cathédrale’ the most expensive musical instrument ever sold at auction until the ‘Colossus’ Stradivari was purchased by Luigi Alberto Bianchi for $726,000 in 1987.
In 1986 ‘La Cathédrale’ was bought for Nigel Kennedy through the N.W. Brown Group, which later became the basis for the Stradivari Trust. The Stradivari Trust also helped Nigel Kennedy acquire the ‘Lafont’ Guarneri ‘del Gesù’ later in his career. ‘La Cathédrale’ was sold again in 1992 to the American collector, Peter Mandell. The violin was part of the Mandell collection for many years, during which time it was loaned to musicians such as Tamaki Kawakubo, who won the 2002 International Tchaikovsky Competition.
‘La Cathédrale’ was sold anonymously in 2003 before being bought by a private collector in 2015, with whom it remains.
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