The world’s two best-preserved Stradivari violins, the 1721 ‘Lady Blunt’ and the 1716 ‘Messiah’, were recently reunited in a rare event of great historical importance. The last time these two violins were in the same room together was most likely in the 1930s at the W.E. Hills shop in London.
The ‘Lady Blunt’ (left) and the ‘Messiah’ violins reunited at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford
The occasion was the launch of the new reference guide to the Ashmolean Museum’s musical instrument collection, Musical Instruments in the Ashmolean Museum: The Complete Collection, edited by John Milnes, with photography by Tucker Densley.
The original bass bars of the two Stradivari violins
Also see our feature on the ‘Lady Blunt’, which was sold by Tarisio in 2011 for a record £9.8 million.