To play a Stradivari is to give voice to a piece of Italian cultural history by creating a unique connection between past and present through music.
Giuseppe Gibboni
Jupiter 1722
It is said that the great English collector Mr. James Goding named the violin “Jupiter”. It is also known as “Imperator” and “Ex-Goding”. In 1857, this violin was purchased by the French collector Vicomte de Janzé from Mr. Goding through Parisian dealer Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume. In 1886, it passed into the hands of the Duke of Camposelice through the dealer George Withers. After the death of the Duke of Camposelice in 1887, the violin was sold to Mr. Thurlow Weed Barnes of New York by the Duchess of Camposelice. Working through the intermediary of H. C. Silvestre of Paris, W. E. Hill & Sons purchased the violin in 1898, and in the same year, sold it to the British collector Mr. Robert E. Brandt. In 1905, Mrs. Phipps, an amateur cellist from New York, purchased the violin from the Hills as a gift for her husband Mr. John S. Phipps. The violin remained in the Phipps family for many years. In 1971, an amateur violinist, collector and Clinical Professor of Medicine Dr. Ephraim P. Engleman (1911-2015) of San Mateo, California purchased the violin through Rembert Wurlitzer, Inc. of New York. In 1992, the Hayashibara Foundation purchased the violin, and from them the Nippon Music Foundation acquired it in May 1998.
LAM Ex Scotland University 1734
It is a magnificent large violin, probably built on the ‘G’ form, and shows the participation of Francesco, who by 1734 had an important role in the workshop. As in other instruments of the same type, such as the ‘Ames’ and ‘Habeneck’ violins, the effigies are slightly out of phase: the one on the treble side is positioned considerably higher than the other. The back is of non-local wood and the bowing is decidedly full and begins to swell immediately inside the edges. The work of the skilled and experienced Francis is also visible in the head and tip work.
According to a recent statement by the Hill family, in the early 20th century this violin was bequeathed to a University in Scotland by Mr. George D.N. Neill of Drumlea, Greenock.
Neill was a keen amateur violinist who had purchased the instrument from the Hill family themselves and also owned the 1717 ‘Tyrell’ Stradivarius. Previously the violin would have belonged to another amateur, a Mr Heath, who sold it to William Ebsworth Hil in 1873.
In 1941 the instrument was back at the Hill’s who sold it to Wurlitzer in New York. From there the instrument passed in the same year to Edward Cole in New Jersey. In 1948 the Hill family sold the instrument to Frank Gullino of New York, who later owned another Stradivari and a Guarneri del Gesù. Between 1963 and 1969, Rembert Wurlitzer sold the violin no less than four times, to Louis Schrade, to Jerry Castellone, to Dr. P. J. McGlynn and finally to Mrs. Mildred Sainer. In 1972, again through Wurlitzer, the ‘Scotland University’ reached out to the important American collector Sau-Wing Lam.
