Notes:

". . . the instrument is well known to all connoisseurs in London, and Messrs. Hill, Hart, and other experts, admit it to be one of the best preserved Guarnerius known. Its characteristic qualities consist outwardly in its having no crack or blemish of any kind, a good deal of fine dark amber varnish left, and a notch in the table, classing it with three or four well-known violins made from the same piece of wood."

Celebrated Violins and Their Owners, Eugene Polonaski, The Violin Times, November, 1897, London

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"The belly exhibits the well-known sapstain which is to be seen more or less plainly on the great majority of the maker's violins, and this is distinctly shown in the photograph. Hart was, I believe, the first writer to draw attention to this peculiarity. Its occurrence has been questioned by one or two subsequent writers whose opportunities or powers of observation must obviously have been somewhat limited. It may be seen repeatedly by anyone who has eyes and will take the trouble to look for it ; and it has on more than one occasion helped to settle the authenticity of an otherwise dubious specimen. According to Hart this piece of pine from which Joseph cut his bellies must have passed into the possession of Carlo Bergonzi, as he cites three fiddles by that maker in which the stain is met with, and which for a long time passed as the work of Guarneri."

The 'Lafont Joseph', Towry Piper, The Strad, 1913, London