“We regard this violin as an example of the highest merit and, as far as its preservation is concerned, deserving to the rank with ‘The Messie’ and ‘The Tuscan’.”
-W.E. Hill & Sons, 1941

 

---

“This extraordinary violin is in much the same condition as when it left its maker’s hands, and it can be placed alongside the ‘Messie’ of 1716, that is in the Ashmolean museum in Oxford, England.”
-Andrew Hill, W.E. Hill, 2010

 

 

---

“The freshness of preservation of this violin is outstanding, and it was no great surprise when it fetched a world record price at a Sotheby’s auction sale in 1971. All the details of Stradivari’s immaculate workmanship have remained almost unbelievably sharp, indeed sharper than most makers choose to make their new instruments in our own time. There is very little wear to the varnish, and even the original bass-bar and fingerboard are preserved with the violin.”
-Charles Beare, J.& A. Beare Ltd, 1987

 

 

---

“Rarely does a Stradivarius of this quality in such pristine condition and with such significant historical provenance come up for sale. It still shows the tool-marks and brushstrokes of Stradivari. The ‘Lady Blunt’ is perhaps the best-preserved Stradivarius to be offered for sale in the past century.”
-Christopher Reuning, Reuning & Son Violins, 2011

 

 

---

“If you want to buy the world’s best-preserved Stradivari violin, this is your opportunity.”
-Peter Biddulph, 2011

 

 

---

“The ‘Lady Blunt’ of 1721 is indisputably the finest violin ever to appear at auction, and is considered the second best preserved Stradivari, after the ‘Messiah’ of 1716.”
-Tim Ingles, Sotheby’s, 2006

 

 

---

“A Strad made in 1721 of incomparable beauty and the most remarkable condition…”
-Robert Lewin, The Strad, 1971

 

 

---

“Considered the finest Strad in existence, next to ‘The Messie’.”
-William Henley, 1961

 

 

---

“I, the undersigned, declare that I have sold to Lady Anne Isobella Nöel a violin by Antonio Stradivari, made in Cremona in the year 1721, for the sum of £260 sterling. I guarantee the perfect authenticity of this instrument which came into my possession with its original fingerboard and without having been opened, everything about it is intact and I have not touched it except as is required by present day needs. I have had to change the bar and lengthen the neck to modern dimensions, but I have preserved the original neck. This fine instrument is therefore absolutely complete, and in an exceptionally rare state of preservation.”
-Jean Baptiste Vuillaume, 1864

 

 

---

Return to www.tarisio.com/theladyblunt