Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1889 — The Story of a Noble Fiddle. [ARTICLE]

The Story of a Noble Fiddle.

Waldemar Meyer, the well known violin virtuoso, who gave his last concert of the season at St. James’s hall the other day, says the London Star, has just become possessor of one of the most valuable violins in the world, but for which he had to pay the rather high price of £1,250. Of course it could only be for a genuine Stradivarius that such a sum was paid, and this, in addition to being a real production of the celebrated maker, is one of the most historically famous violins of its class. According to the documents respecting it this fiddle was made by Stradivarius in 1710 for no less a personage than George I. of England, and it is very nearly the’ largest “Strad” ever constructed- Down to the beginning of the present century it remained in possession of the English royal family, and then, for some reason not stated, it passed into the hands of a musically inclined Scotch nobleman who was in the English army, and who valued it so much that he always carried it with him in his baggage—indeed, he even had it with him at Waterloo. At his death the family closely held the instrument. but the violinist Molique, - who 1 rved ■ irr London from 1850 to 1886, often visited their house, toolt a fancy to the ‘“Strad, ’’and it was ultimately presented to him. In 1866, when Molique returned, to his native Bavaria to pass the evening of his life at Cronstadt, he transferred it to his friend and pupil Baron von Dreifuss of Munich, a brother of the Parisian bookseller. He was in possession of the violin for over twenty years, till he too was crushed by th£ Weight of age and rendered incapable by an injury to his arm of longer enjoying the wonderful tones of his muchprized instrument. He sold it a few days since to the great violin collector of Berlin, Herr Blechers, for £I,OOO. who in turn sold it to Waldemar Meyer, netting £250 over the transaction.