12/01/2026
♥️ Definitely one of our favorite works from the master Antonio Stradivari!
⭐️Crafted in 1714, the violin belongs to Antonio Stradivari’s ‘golden period’ of violin making. For nearly 40 years, the violin was played by Russian-American virtuoso Toscha Seidel, a classmate of Jascha Heifetz
📰On 27 April 1924, the violin made front-page headlines in the New York Times, when it was acquired by Seidel, widely considered one of the greats of the 20th century. Seidel bought the violin for $25,000 and said he ’wouldn’t part with it for a million dollars…we precisely suit each other, and I am convinced it is one of the finest examples of the famous violin maker.’
🎻The violin was named the ‘Da Vinci’ in the 1920s by the Paris-based dealers Caressa & Français. In their sales ledger, under a note that it was sold by them on 24 March 1923, the entry reads: ’baptisé par nous “Le Léonard de Vinci”’ (’baptised ”the Leonardo da Vinci” by us’). The dealers were fond of naming their Stradivaris after great Italian painters, also ‘baptising’ a 1715 violin the ‘Titian’ and one from 1718 the ‘Michelangelo’.
Source: theStrad
