Instrument

Iconography Index

Black-and-white photos (front, back & side): How Many Strads?, Ernest N. Doring, William Lewis & Son, Chicago, 1945.

Black-and-white photos (front, back, side, scroll & f-hole - initialed by Emil Herrmann): The Jacques Francais Rare Violins, Inc. Photographic Archive and Business Records, 1844-1998, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.

Black-and-white photos (front, back, side, scroll & f-hole): Violin Iconography of Antonio Stradivari 1644-1737, Herbert K. Goodkind, Larchmont, New York, 1972.

Notes

Its name is taken from the ownership by Sir William Huggins, a well-known English astronomer in the 1880s. This violin is slated to the Grand prize winner of the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Belgium every four years.

http://www.nmf.or.jp/english/

Sir William Huggins possesses the fellow to this violin, made in 1708. No direct traces of Amati influence are apparent either externally or in the tone; the different arching, absence of hollowing, lightness of the edges, all denote a structure in which tone has become the paramount consideration.

Antonio Stradivari: His Life & Work (1644-1737), W. Henry, Arthur F. & Alfred E. Hill, William E. Hill & Sons, London, 1902.

Cho-Liang Lin: "But I wanted a violin that was closer in quality to a Stradivari called the ‘Soil’ which had been loaned to me for a year before I bought the Dushkin. I had the image in mind that I would get something like the ‘Soil’ and when I tried the Huggins, it reminded me of the Soil. It’s from the same year—1708—and it has a very similar back, with an almost identical varnish. It’s a very ravishing-looking violin. The sound was the problem. The 1708 Huggins Strad had been sitting in a bank vault for 30-odd years before I got it. It took a while for that violin to sound good, but it only developed so much and wouldn’t go further. I tried different adjustments like a new bridge, a new sound post, and working on the angle of the neck, but it never quite satisfied my expectations. In the meantime, I played concerts and recordings but never felt quite comfortable with it."

http://www.stringsmagazine.com/issues/Strings98/CoverStory.html

Provenance

Owner	Owned From	Owned In	Owned Till	Price paid
Nippon Music Foundation	1995
...
Cho-Liang Lin	1990		1991
...
Carl Petschek	1931			For members only
Emil Herrmann			1931
Zlatko Balokovic (New York)	1928
W.E. Hill & Sons			1928
Gustavo Herten (Buenos Ayres)	1924
Rudolph Wurlitzer Co.	1924		1924
Felix E. Kahn	1914		1924	For members only
W.E. Hill & Sons			1914
Richard Bennett (Lancashire)
W.E. Hill & Sons
Sir William Huggins		1902
W.E. Hill & Sons	1880
Carl Zack (Vienna)			1880
...
Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (Paris)		1850
...

 Current owner
 Indicates that the owner is or was also a musician

Players

Name	Played From	Played In	Played To
Ray Chen	2009
...
Baiba Skride	2001	2003
...
Cho-Liang Lin	1990		1991
...

 Current player
 Indicates that the musician is or was also an owner of one or more instruments

Certificates

Certificate: W. E. Hill & Sons, London, November 30, 1928

Certificate: Emil Herrmann, Berlin, 1931

References

Antonio Stradivari and His Instruments, William Henley, Amati Publishing, Ltd., Sussex, 1961.

Antonio Stradivari: His Life & Work (1644-1737), W. Henry, Arthur F. & Alfred E. Hill, William E. Hill & Sons, London, 1902.

How Many Strads?, Ernest N. Doring, William Lewis & Son, Chicago, 1945.

Violin Iconography of Antonio Stradivari 1644-1737, Herbert K. Goodkind, Larchmont, New York, 1972.

http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2009/06/20yearold_aussi.shtml

http://www.nmf.or.jp/english/

http://www.nmf.or.jp/english/instrument/skride.html

http://www.stringsmagazine.com/issues/Strings98/CoverStory.html

The Jacques Francais Rare Violins, Inc. Photographic Archive and Business Records, 1844-1998, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.

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