Lot Essay
Certificate: Caressa & Français, Paris, January 17, 1925, and Emil Herrmann, New York, October 11, 1935; along with a bill of sale, Emil Herrmann, Easton CT. dated June 2, 1953
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A VIOLIN, KNOWN AS THE EX-WOLLGANDT, MILAN, 1755
Details
GIOVANNI BATTISTA GUADAGNINI
A VIOLIN, KNOWN AS THE EX-WOLLGANDT, MILAN, 1755
Labeled Joannes Baptista Guadagnini Pla- centnus fecit Mediolani 1755, length of back 13 15/16 in (354 mm) with nickel-mounted bow and case (4)
A VIOLIN, KNOWN AS THE EX-WOLLGANDT, MILAN, 1755
Labeled Joannes Baptista Guadagnini Pla- centnus fecit Mediolani 1755, length of back 13 15/16 in (354 mm) with nickel-mounted bow and case (4)
Provenance
Edgar Wollgandt
Emil Herrmann
Iso Briselli
Alfred O. Corbin
John Corigliano Sr.
Albert A. Mell
The first recorded owner was Edgar Wollgandt whose name this violin bears. A pupil of Hugo Heermann, Wollgandt was the first violinist of the Gewandhaus String Quartet and the concert master of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig. The Berlin dealer Emil Herrmann purchased the violin and sold it to Iso Briselli in 1925. Briselli was a student of Carl Flesch and class mate of Samuel Barber at the Curtis Institute for who Barber would later write his celebrated Adagio for Strings. The violin would later revert back to Emil Herrmann who sold it to banker and collector Alfred O. Corbin. As a collector Corbin was know to have owned two Stradivari, including the 1717 Piatti, two works by Matteo Goffriller, a 1743 Giuseppe Guarneri 'del Gesu' and no less then three works by G.B. Guadagnini. After Corbin's death the instrument was sold to New York violinist John Corigliano Sr. in 1935. Long time concertmaster for the New York Philharmonic Corigliano owned the violin for eight-teen years when in 1953 it was purchased by Albert A. Mell for the sum of $7,500. Albert Mell would retain the violin until his death in 2007.
Emil Herrmann
Iso Briselli
Alfred O. Corbin
John Corigliano Sr.
Albert A. Mell
The first recorded owner was Edgar Wollgandt whose name this violin bears. A pupil of Hugo Heermann, Wollgandt was the first violinist of the Gewandhaus String Quartet and the concert master of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig. The Berlin dealer Emil Herrmann purchased the violin and sold it to Iso Briselli in 1925. Briselli was a student of Carl Flesch and class mate of Samuel Barber at the Curtis Institute for who Barber would later write his celebrated Adagio for Strings. The violin would later revert back to Emil Herrmann who sold it to banker and collector Alfred O. Corbin. As a collector Corbin was know to have owned two Stradivari, including the 1717 Piatti, two works by Matteo Goffriller, a 1743 Giuseppe Guarneri 'del Gesu' and no less then three works by G.B. Guadagnini. After Corbin's death the instrument was sold to New York violinist John Corigliano Sr. in 1935. Long time concertmaster for the New York Philharmonic Corigliano owned the violin for eight-teen years when in 1953 it was purchased by Albert A. Mell for the sum of $7,500. Albert Mell would retain the violin until his death in 2007.
Literature
E. N. Doring The Guadagnini Family Of Violin Makers Chicago 1949, pp. 131, 133, fig. 131