Reconstructing the History of the 1724 'Sarasate' Stradivarius Violin, with Some Thoughts on the Use of Sources in Violin Provenance Research
Résumé
The reconstruction of the history of individual musical instruments, and violins in particular, is often full of pitfalls. The material history –documenting the dates, the nature of accidents, repairs and modifications –the history of ownership (or provenance) –documenting the names and profiles of the successive owners of the instrument, as well as the dates and conditions of changing ownerships –canstrongly benefit from a thorough in-depth examination of the instrument itself, particularly when it is combined with the study of sources that are more conventional to the historian (written and iconographic sources). The ‘Sarasate’ violin (Antonio Stradivari, 1724, Cremona, coll. Musée de la musique, Paris, E.1729), whose history is somewhat confused and debated in the literature, is presented here as a case study for such reconstruction. This article shows that the successive owners were: Stradivari’s sons, Ignassio Alessandro Cozio, Count of Salabue, Niccolò Paganini, Achile Paganini, Jean Baptiste Vuillaume and Pablo de Sarasate, who bequeathed it to the Conservatoire de Paris in 1908. On a more general note, this study also shows the crucial interest of written archives from nineteenth-and twentieth-centuries luthiers (accounting ledgers, correspondence, certificates, etc.), and the need for the proper conservation and accessibility of such archives.