CHRISTIE’S AUCTION FEATURES A 1729 STRADIVARI VIOLIN, “SOLOMON, EX-LAMBERT” Christie’s is pleased to announce the Fine Musical Instruments sale on April 2 in New
York will be lead by a 1729 Stradivari violin known as the “Solomon, Ex-Lambert” (estimate: $1,000,000-1,500,000)
News-Antique.com - Nov 30,-0001 - New York – Christie’s is pleased to announce the Fine Musical Instruments sale on April 2 in New York will be lead by a 1729 Stradivari violin known as the “Solomon, x-Lambert” (estimate:
$1,000,000-1,500,000). Christie’s holds the world record price for any musical instrument sold at auction with the sale of “The Hammer” Stradivari which realized $3,544,000 May of 2006. The “Solomon, Ex-Lambert” derives its name from the late Seymour Solomon, co-founder of Vanguard records, and amateur violinist who bought the violin at auction in 1972, and from Miss Murray Lambert, a British concert violinist during the 1920-30s who was the previous owner. Made in Cremona by Antonio Stradivari in 1729, the violin emanates from his mature period and retains the bold outline, superb arching and quality materials which account for the power, sonority and tonal balance his
work is recognized for.
Provenance
The first recorded owner of this 1729 Stradivari was the Berlin dealer and expert August Riechers who sold it to ‘Miss Price’, a student of the violin who was studying in Berlin at the time. From Miss Price the violin passed to the venerable English collector Robert Bower, one of the preeminent connoisseurs of his day who owned no fewer then twenty-four works by Stradivari. By 1922 the violin was sold through the London dealers of John and Arthur Beare to Ernest E. Winterbotham who paid the price of Ł1,600 and gave the violin to his wife Dorothy Mary Murray Lambert. Known as Miss Murray Lambert, she was among the few British women of the 1920’s and 30’s who pursued a career as a concert violinist. A student of both Carl Flesch and Leopold Auer she was a champion of British contemporary composers and a prolific performer of the works of Sir Hamilton Harty. It is said that her performances of Frederick Delius’s Violin Sonata No.1 inspired the artist Hugh Riviere R.A. to create his final full length portrait entitled Delius Sonata. By the late 1930’s she withdrew from the concert stage to concentrate on teaching which she pursued through the 1950’s. Following her death the violin was offered at auction in 1972 where it was presented as The Property of Miss Murray Lambert and sold for Ł17,500 to Seymour Solomon.
Unique to the sale is the fact that Seymour Solomon was not a member of the trade, but a private collector and talented amateur violinist with a discerning eye and equally good ear. He was also a lover of classical music and one of the major forces to advance its audience in the last half of the 20th century. Born in New York in 1922, Seymour Solomon attended the Julliard School majoring in Musicology and the violin. His studies were interrupted by World War II, and upon his return in 1946 he continued at New York University, concentrating on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Frustrated at the lack of recorded works of Bach and other baroque composers he set about changing that situation irrevocably in
