Nicolò Amati Violin: the "King Louis XIV"
date: label: Date made
content: 1656
name: label: maker
content: Amati, Nicolo
notes: label: Description
content: <p>This violin was made by Nicolò Amati in Cremona, Italy in 1656. It is the <i>King Loius XIV</i> violin with a top of spruce with grain of narrow width, one-piece back of slab cut maple with medium width flame mostly horizontal, ribs and volute of quarter sawn maple with narrower flame, double purfling to the top and back, mastic fleur-de-lys inlays to the corners of the top and back and to the rib joints, and varnish of a golden-brown color over a golden ground. There is an original printed label inside the instrument:</p>
label: Description
content: <p>Nicolaus Amatus Cremonen. Hieronymi<br>Fil. ac Antonij Nepos Fecit. 16<i>56</i></p>
label: Description
content: <p>["56" is handwritten]</p>
label: Description
content: <p>This violin has also been known as the “Youssoupoff” (see
label: Description
content: The Strad magazine, March 1967, pages 410-433). The earliest
label: Description
content: known owner is Jean Baptiste Vuillaume who bought the violin at
label: Description
content: a London sale in 1855, and then sold it to the Russian nobleman,
label: Description
content: Prince Nicholas Yousoupoff. As a student of the violin, Prince
label: Description
content: Yousoupoff studied under Henry Vieuxtemps; he composed music
label: Description
content: and even wrote a history of the violin.</p>
label: Description
content: <p>Another Strad magazine article in August 1983 documents
label: Description
content: the violin was again sold by J.B. Vuillaume on 8 February 1862 to
label: Description
content: Mr. Liodor de Panajeff of Moscow. The next known owner is the
label: Description
content: violin dealer Emil Herrmann who assembled a quartet of Amati
label: Description
content: instruments (the 1656 <i>King Louis XIV</i> and the 1672 <i>Florian Zajic</i> violins, the 1663 <i>Professor Wirth</i> viola, and the 1677 <i>Herbert</i> violoncello) for Mrs. Anna E. Clark. She lent them to the Loewenguth Quartet of Brussels before bequeathing the quartet to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC. The Corcoran loaned the quartet to the Claremont String Quartet of the North Carolina School of the Arts, and in 1966, this violin was stolen. Its fate remained a mystery until the New York dealer, Jacques Français, came upon the instrument in 1971 and promptly returned it to the Corcoran.</p>
label: Description
content: <p>Beginning in 1975, the Corcoran loaned the instruments
label: Description
content: to the Tokyo String Quartet, and then to the Takács Quartet before
label: Description
content: selling them to Dr. Herbert Axelrod in 1998.</p>
place: label: Place Made
content: Italy: Lombardy, Cremona
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Musical Instruments
label: See more items in
content: Music & Musical Instruments
label: See more items in
content: Violins
label: Exhibition
content: North Music Lobby
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Evelyn and Herbert R. Axelrod
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2000.0100.01
label: accession number
content: 2000.0100
label: catalog number
content: 2000.0100.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: violin
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: spruce (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: maple (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 24 in x 8 3/8 in x 3 1/2 in; 60.96 cm x 21.2725 cm x 8.89 cm