Jacob Stainer (Absam, b 1617?; d 1683) A violin Absam , 1659

the pegbox terminating in a carved lion's head

The violin is first recorded in the possession of A.D. Siegert of Radebeul, Dresden, in the 1890s, and was with Emil Herrmann by 1921.  It was illustrated in Herrmann's 1927 catalogue as 'The Siegert'.  Herrmann retained possession for 33 years, before reluctantly selling the violin to Henry Hottinger in 1954. It passed from Hottinger into the Nordberger collection, and then, via Wurlitzer to the current owner, who has treasured it for the last 43 years.

DOCUMENTS
The certificate of Emil Herrmann, New York, dated 12th July 1954 and made out to Henry Hottinger, referring to the violin as 'The King of all the Stainers' and adding ' the finest specimen of this famous maker known to me.. of unsurpassable workmanship and in mint condition'.

A letter from Emil Herrmann, New York, also dated July 12th 1954, describing the violin as 'my treasured possession for 33 years'.

The certificate of Rembert Wurlitzer Inc., New York, dated 31st May 1968, referring to the violin as 'the finest example known to us', together with a letter dated 1st July 1968

LITERATURE
Walter Hamma, Meister Deutscher Geigenbaukunst, 1948, pp. 322-3
The Henry Hottinger Collection, 1966, one of only five instruments illustrated in colour
The Nordberger Collection, 1961, p. 208
Niederheitmann, Cremona, 1909, p. 121
Mertzanoff, Violins and Violinists, 1943, p. 333
Ausstellung Wien 1892, Deutschland u. Oesterreich-Ungarn, p. 202