Nicolo Amati (Cremona, b 1596; d 1684) A violin Cremona, circa 1630

Documents
A photocopy of the certificate of Max Möller & Zoon, Amsterdam, dated 7th August 1976 and made out to the present owner, mentioning that the hand of Stradivari can be seen in some details of the instrument.

Dendrochronology
Sold with the tree-ring analysis report of John Topham, Redhill, dated 14th June 2002.  The dendrochronological analysis does not reveal a date, but gives a significant cross-match with another undated sequence from the Nicolo Amati violin dated 1629 in the collection of the Royal Academy in London.

Both of these instruments, which are labelled as the work of the Brothers Amati, are in fact the work of Nicolo.  On page 12 of Masterpieces of Italian Violin Making, David Rattray explains that, although both the brothers were dead by 1628, the instruments continued to be labelled as their work until 1630.  The 1629 violin is illustrated on pages 12-15 of Rattray's book