Violin
Maker
Antonio Amati
Maker
Girolamo Amati
Date1595 ca.
Place MadeParis, France
Place MadeCremona, Italy, Europe
ModelSchieffer Henry IV Amati
SignedLater printed label, the last three digits of year written in black ink: Antonius, & Hieronymus FR. Amati / Cremoneñ Andrea fil.F. 1595MarkingsWritten in black ink on inside of back: Pro henrici quarti Sacrario / Fecit hieronimus Amati anno 1595 / Primatii Pinzerunt alumni / Obtinuit Marescalcus Bassompierre / cujus annos bis centum Domus servavit / Tandem requisivit J. B. Cartier / e Sacrario Regis ludovici XVIII / et ejusdemacadiePrimus violinista / idem ad Carolum Gand alumnum / Nicolai Lupot Parisiis / factoris, restaurandi / causā commisit.
[Made for the Chapel of Henry IV by Girolamo Amati in the year 1595. Decorated by his most distinguished pupils. Acquired by Marshal Bassompierre, whose house[hold] kept it for two hundred years. Finally, it was sought by J. B. Cartier from the Chapel of King Louis XVIII, of whose Academie he is first among the violinists. The same [Cartier] had brought it to Charles [Francois] Gand, pupil of violin [maker] Nicholas Lupot, in Paris, for repair.]
Painted in black and gold on ribs: HENRICUS IV DEI GRAT FRANC ET NAV REX [Henry IV, by the Grace of God, King of France and Navarre]
DescriptionThis violin is part of the last documented set of Amati instruments made for the French royal court. It bears the armorials of King Henry IV. Its top was made by a French maker in the first half of the eighteenth century. An inscription on the inside of the back documents some of its nineteenth century history, including ownership by the prominent violinist Jean-Baptiste Cartier and repair by Nicholas Lupot. It is preserved with an eighteenth century French case with the royal fleurs de lys partially scratched out. The top of the instrument is later and possibly by Parisian maker Claude Pierray.
Top: two-piece, quarter-cut spruce: wide grain; later
Back: two-piece, quarter-cut maple: narrow curl ascending slightly from center joint
Ribs: quarter-cut maple: narrow curl
Head: maple: plain; center ridge does not fully extend under scroll
Neck: maple: medium curl; later, grafted onto scroll
Arching: high and full on top
Purfling: wide; later
Decoration: painted on scroll, ribs, top, and back in red, blue, black, and gold paint; scroll bears gold foliate decoration; rib garland bears motto HENRICUS IV DEI GRAT FRANC ET NAV REX; top bears four fleurs-de-lys under crowns in four corners; back bears two elaborate “H”s on either side of Henry IV’s central armorial, including the orders of Saint-Michel and Saint-Espirit
Varnish: dark orange brown
Fingerboard: ebony; later
Nut: ebony; later
Tailpiece: rosewood with ebony saddle; tulip-shaped; later
Tailgut: black plastic
Pegs: four rosewood; later
Saddle: ebony; later
Endpin: rosewood; later
Linings: spruce
Corner blocks: spruce
Top block: spruce
Bottom block: spruce
Bassbar: spruce
Louis XVI-era wood case covered in tooled leather bearing the partially effaced triple fleur-de-lys of the French royal court. Brass hardware and later light blue velour lining.
Technical drawing available for purchase.
DimensionsBack length: 360 mm
Upper bout width: 170.5 mm
Center bout width: 107.5 mm
Lower bout width: 209.8 mm
Upper rib height: 27-29 mm
Center rib height: 28-29 mm
Lower rib height: 28-29 mm
Total violin length: 590.4 mm
Stop length: 200.7 mm
Vibrating string length: 332 mm
Neck length (bottom of nut to ribs): 129.3 mm
ProvenanceKing Henry IV, France; François de Bassompierre and family, France; King Louis XVIII, France; Jean-Baptiste Cartier, Paris; George Hart, London; Royal de Forest Hawley, Hartford, Connecticut; Albert Hastings Pitkin, Hartford; Lyon & Healy, Chicago; Edmund V. Bukolt, Stevens Point, Wisconsin; The Copernicus Cultural Foundation, Chicago.
Published ReferencesNMM catalog: _As Good as Gold: The First 50 Years (1973-2023)_. Vermillion, SD: National Music Museum, 2023. (pp. 78, 82-83)
Catalog of Rare Old Violins, Violas, Violoncellos, and Bows of Rare Makes, Lyon & Healy, Chicago, October, 1917.
Catalog of Rare Old Violins, Violas, Violoncellos, and Bows of Rare Makes, Lyon & Healy, Chicago, 1918.
Catalog of Rare Old Violins, Violas, Violoncellos, and Bows of Rare Makes, Lyon & Healy, Chicago, February, 1921.
Catalog of Rare Old Violins, Violas, Violoncellos, and Bows of Rare Makes, Lyon & Healy, Chicago, 1922.
Catalog of Rare Old Violins, Violas, Violoncellos, and Bows of Rare Makes, Lyon & Healy, Chicago, 1929.
"Amati Family Reunion Continues," Strings Trade: News and View of the Violin Business (June 2010).
Gary Ellenbolt, "A King's Violin: From Italy to South Dakota," All Things Considered, National Public Radio, July 7, 2010.
"National Music Museum Augments its Amati Collection: 'King Henry IV' Brothers Amati to Join Fine violins in Vermillion, South Dakota," The Strad website.
Sarah Deters Richardson and Jonathan Santa Maria Bouquet, "Medical Imaging Enables Staff to See the 'Whole' Picture,"NMM Newsletter 37, No. 2 (August 2010).
Arian Sheets, "King Henry IV's Amati Violin Joins NMM's Crown Jewels," NMM Newsletter 37, No. 2 (August 2010).
Erin Shrader, "The French Connection—National Music Museum Receives the Rarest of Gifts," Strings 184 (August 2010): 68.
"The National Museum of Music [sic] Receives a Violin by Antonio and Girolamo Amati Bearing Armorials of King Henri IV of Navarre and France," France-Midwest Express Retrospective (August/September 2010).
"Violin Strings Together French Past and American Future," News from France: A Free Monthly Review of French News and Trends (Washington, DC: French Embassy Press and Communication Service) 10.07 (September 30, 2010): 8.
Andrew Dipper and Claire Givens, "Fit for A King," The Strad 121, No. 1446 (October 2010): 26-34.
David Lias, "400-year-old Violin Unveiled at National Music Museum," Vermillion Plain Talk (October 1, 2010).
Hanna M. Szczepanowska, Conservation of Cultural Heritage: Key Principles and Approaches, London: Routledge, 2013, page 67 (photograph of CT side view of violin)
Technical Drawings
Credit LinePurchase funds gift of Kevin Schieffer, 2010
Object number14470
On View
Not on view
1850-1900 ca.