A violin by Antonio Stradivari

The ‘ex-Greffuhle’ was made as part of a commission received by Antonio Stradivari from King Charles IV of Spain, although it is unclear whether the commission was ever completed. As a result, the first known owner of the ‘ex-Greffuhle’ was Dr John Camidge, a talented violinist and organist at York Minster, in 1840. Camidge sold the violin after his death to Reverend John Blow, a Yorkshireman, who gave it to his son, William, an amateur violinist and collector. It is rumoured that Dr Camidge bought the violin from a pawn shop for under £5 and sold it to Rvnd Blow for £200 just 30 years later.

In 1878 the violin was bought by John Adam, who owned a collection consisting of at least 10 violins by Stradivari and another 6 by Giuseppe Guarneri. On the sale of the Adam collection in 1880, the ‘ex-Greffuhle’ was bought by David Laurie, another well known collector. Laurie sold the violin to Vicomte de Greffuhle, from whom it received its name, in 1882.

Greffuhle owned the violin until 1810, when it was sold to Caressa & Français, a distinguished Parisian firm doing business from 1901 to 1981, and passed from there to Hamma & Co.. Hamma had been commissioned to find a Stradivari for the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria but, after a sale could not be agreed, sold the ‘ex-Greffuhle’ to Valenti Walther of Bohemia. Hug & Co. bought the violin from Walther in 1923 and owned it for nearly 40 years before selling it to Carl Tannewitz, a machinery manufacturer and owner of Tannewitz Works in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Tannewitz took the violin to Sotheby’s and it was sold at auction to Jacques Français, one of the leading violin experts of the 20th century, in 1977 for $170,000. Français immediately sold the violin to Herbert Alxelrod, who donated it to the Smithsonian Institution Museum in 1997 as part of the Herbert R. Axelrod Quartet, comprising the ‘Ole Bull’ (violin), the ‘ex-Greffuhle’ (violin), the ‘Axelrod’ (viola), and the ‘Marylebone’ (cello).

The ‘ex-Greffuhle’ remains in the Smithsonian Museum today.