18/06/2026
LUTHERIE: Um pouco de história...
❎❎𝗡𝗢 𝗚𝗜𝗙𝘀 - seu perfil poderá ser bloqueado
🎻 Antonio Stradivari, 1734 "Willemotte" Violin
This instrument belongs to the very end of Stradivari's career, made when the Cremonese master was ninety years old, it is considered to have been made entirely by him without the assistance of his sons.
The violin showcase an original label dated 1734, and it is named after Mr. Charles Willemotte of Antwerp, Belgium, who, aside from having been an amateur player of excellent ability, had also owned a beautiful collection of fine Italian instruments, the majority of which were made by Stradivari.
The first known owner of the instrument was recorded by Charles-Eugène Gand in 1880 as being a Mr. Cartier of Paris. Upon his death, the luthiers Gand & Bernardel bought the violin from his family and in 1886 sold it to Mr. C. Willemotte.
Shortly before Willemotte's death in 1893, his collection was dispersed and this instrument and several others were purchased by Mr. Charles Edler of Frankfurt.
By 1928, the Willemotte' belonged to Dr. Gerhard Tischer, Professor of Musicology at the Cologne University of Music. It seems probable that at some point the violin reached the German Kebs collection, but before the end of the 1950s, it was in the hands of the Swiss luthier Henry Werro, who sold it to the violinist Maria Lidka, who was a beloved performer and a teacher at the Royal College of Music in London.
In 1983, the instrument was sold by the Chicago dealers Bein & Fushi to the American physicist Albert Overhauser. Five years later, in 1988, the 'Willemotte' returned to Bein & Fushi's shop, where it was sold to his current owner, Leonidas Kavakos.
Antonio Stradivari, 1734 "Willemotte" Violin, main character of the Signature Series project 🎻
