Gasparo Bertolotti 'da Salò', Brescia, 1570, the 'Kux'

Violin: 44354

FIT TO SCREEN FULL SIZE

Back: Two-piece

Length of back: 36.7 cm

Upper bouts: 17.1 cm

Middle bouts: 12.1 cm

Lower bouts: 21.2 cm

There are 11 additional images in the archive which are not available publicly. Please contact us for more information.

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GASPARO BERTOLOTTI 'DA SALò': BIOGRAPHY AND PRICE HISTORY
FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT
Gasparo Bertolotti 'da Salò'

Provenance

	Wilhelm Kux
in 1966	Sold by Rembert Wurlitzer Inc.
in 1971	Sold by Rembert Wurlitzer Inc.
from 1971	Salvatore Malfitano
in 2017	Current owner

Known players

Salvatore Malfitano

Certificates & Documents

Certificate: Rembert Wurlitzer Inc., New York, NY (1971)
Certificate: Rembert Wurlitzer Inc., New York, NY (1971)

Cozio holds copies of many certificates and other documents, some of which are available to view on request. Please contact us if you wish to view a particular document. (Note that we do not always have permission to share documents.)

References

36 Famous Italian Violins, Alex Wasinski, Herman Gordon, New York (illustrated)
A Thousand Mornings of Music, Arnold Gingrich, Crown Publishers, New York (illustrated)
Private Archives - 10746
Private Archives - 10842
Loan Exhibition of Stringed Instruments and Bows Commemorating the 70th Birthday of Simone Fernando Sacconi, Schuler Verlagsgesellschaft, Stuttgart (illustrated)
The Jacques Français Rare Violins, Inc. Photographic Archive and Business Records, 1844-1998, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (illustrated)

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Early history of
the 'Heifetz, Piel'

In around 1876, Count de Chaponay sold the violin back to the Silvestres’ nephew, Hippolyte Chrétien who then sold it to the Englishman Henry Benjamin Merton together with an Amati violin for a total price of 5,000 Francs.

We learn from Arthur Hill that Luigi Tarisio sold this violin in 1836 to Pierre and Hippolyte Silvestre, dealers in Lyon, for 1,500 Francs. The Silvestre brothers subsequently sold it to the Lyonese violinist, instrument collector and bibliophile, Count Alexandre-Henri de Chaponay.

Merton brought this violin to London and consigned it for sale at Foster’s auction house together with the 1740 ‘Ysaye’ Guarneri and the 1690 ‘Payne’ Stradivari.

William Ebsworth Hill bought the three violins at auction and sold the ‘Heifetz, Piel’ to John Clarke Crosthwaite McCaul (1831–1903), his friend and long-time customer. McCaul owned a number of other important instruments including an Amati violin, two Guadagnini violas and a Bergonzi. The ‘Heifetz, Piel’ was his most important acquisition and one of his last.

In 1879 the violin came back to Hills and was subsequently sold to Edmund Janson, a city banker, who lived at Speldhurst, Kent. Upon his death in 1906, his son sold the violin to the J & A Beare firm in London who in turn sold it to Emil Hamma of Stuttgart. Two years later, Michael Piel purchased it from Hamma, possibly upon the advice of Louis Otto, a violinmaker and dealer from his native Düsseldorf.

The Piel family are reported to have owned a number of other important instruments including an Amati and a Guarneri. Rudolf Piel and his older brother, Otto Andrew, are recorded as violinists. Rudolf studied at Philips Andover and then Harvard and Columbia Universities.

Otto Andrew appears to have had a different career path that warrants further investigation. The 1910 United States census lists Michael Piel, his wife, eight children and six servants living in their home on West 72nd Street. Michael’s profession is given as “Brewer” and the only child with a profession listed was his twenty-four year-old son, Otto Andrew, who was listed as a “manufacturer of violins”.

The 1910 US census listed Michael Piel (brewer) with his eight children and six servants. Otto Andrew is listed as a “Manufacturer of Violins”.

Gasparo Bertolotti 'da Salò', Brescia, 1570, the 'Kux'

Provenance

Known players

Certificates & Documents

References

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