# The Messiah > Antonio Stradivari - 1716 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/antonio-stradivari/messiah-stradivarius-ashmolean/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-10-08 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Antonio Stradivari - **Date:** 1716 - **Medium:** Spruce table, maple back, ribs and neck (fingerboard, pegs, bridge, tailpiece and bass bar later replaced), on Stradivari's own internal form, under oil varnish - **Dimensions:** Back length 35.6 cm; upper bout 16.75 cm; middle bout 10.83 cm; lower bout 20.8 cm; overall length approximately 59.3 cm as given by the Ashmolean Museum - **Object type:** Musical instrument - **Period:** Italian, early eighteenth century (Cremonese school, Stradivari's 'Golden Period', c. 1700-1720) - **Current location:** Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, on display in Gallery 39 (Music and Tapestry) - **Attribution:** accepted ## Summary The Messiah is a violin made by Antonio Stradivari in Cremona in 1716 and kept, by an unbroken sequence of owners who each chose not to use it, in something close to the condition it left his workshop in. It passed from Stradivari's own family to the collector Cozio di Salabue in 1775, to the dealer Luigi Tarisio in 1827, and after Tarisio's death in 1854 to Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, the restorer and copyist whose dual skill made the violin's later authenticity dispute credible. It has been in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, since 1939, given by the Hill family on the condition that it never be played again.Because it was so rarely played, doubt persisted for a century that Vuillaume, who both restored Stradivaris and made exact copies of them, had substituted or heavily altered the instrument. Two independent, peer-reviewed dendrochronological studies, published in 2000 and 2004, dated the wood to Stradivari's lifetime and neither corroborated nor was ever answered by the single contrary reading, presented at a 1998 conference and never published. That settles the timber. It does not settle Stewart Pollens's narrower, still unresolved question of whether Vuillaume's own account of acquiring the violin can be independently verified.The Messiah has been sold once, privately, in 1890, for 2,600 pounds. Every other Stradivari to have made comparable or greater sums at market since, from the Lady Blunt to the Baron Knoop, has a documented history of being played. This one does not, by design, and that is the whole of its fame. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **1716-1737** Antonio Stradivari `[documented]` (origin and workshop retention) Made and labelled 1716; retained unsold in Stradivari's own workshop until his death in 1737, per the maker's label and the Hill firm's research into the workshop's later disposition. - **1737-1743** Francesco Stradivari `[documented]` (inheritance) Named in Antonio Stradivari's will as successor to the workshop, tools and unsold stock. Died 1743, unmarried and without heirs. - **1743-1775** Paolo Stradivari `[documented]` (inheritance and workshop retention) Inherited the workshop's remaining tools, patterns and unsold instruments, including this violin, on Francesco's death. - **1775-1827** Count Ignazio Alessandro Cozio di Salabue `[documented]` (purchase) Bought the residue of the Stradivari workshop's tools, patterns and instruments from Paolo Stradivari in 1775, a year before Paolo's death. Cozio's own manuscript, the Carteggio, describes this specific violin in detail and values it at a minimum of 150 zecchini, quoted here at second hand via the Tarisio Cozio Archive's summary of Renzo Bacchetta's 1950 edition. - **1827-1854** Luigi Tarisio `[documented]` (purchase) Purchased from the Cozio estate in 1827, per Vuillaume's own later inscription inside the violin. Kept in Italy and almost never shown; Tarisio's habit of describing but not producing the violin to Parisian dealers, including Vuillaume, is the origin of its nickname. Tarisio died in Milan in 1854 and the violin was found among his effects. - **1854-1875** Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume `[documented]` (purchase) Acquired with the rest of the Tarisio hoard shortly after Tarisio's death. Kept under lock and key; shown, so far as documented, only at the 1872 Special Exhibition of Ancient Musical Instruments at the South Kensington Museum (catalogue item 91). Replaced the bass bar, lengthened the neck, fitted a new Nativity-carved tailpiece, and added his own ownership inscription inside. Died 1875. - **1875-1888** Jean-Delphin Alard `[documented]` (inheritance) Vuillaume's son-in-law and the violinist credited with the remark that gave the violin its name. Died 1888. - **1888-1890** Alard's heirs `[documented]` (gap before sale) Held the violin briefly between Alard's death and its sale through W. E. Hill and Sons. - **1890-1897** Robert Crawford, Edinburgh `[documented]` (private sale) Bought via W. E. Hill and Sons in 1890 for 2,600 pounds, reported at the time as the largest sum ever paid for a single violin. Joseph Joachim wrote to Crawford in 1891 describing the violin's sound as sweet and grand. - **1897-1904** Ernesto Nicolini `[unknown]` (sale) Given as the owner in this window by the Tarisio Cozio Archive's reconstructed chain. Not independently corroborated here; the well-known tenor of this name died in 1898, which sits awkwardly against the stated dates, so this identification is flagged rather than treated as settled. - **1904-1913** W. E. Hill and Sons `[documented]` (repurchase) First of two later reacquisitions by the firm that eventually gave the violin to the Ashmolean. - **1913-1928** Richard Bennett `[documented]` (sale) Collector ownership, per the Tarisio Cozio Archive's reconstructed chain. - **1928-1931** `[unknown]` (gap) No owner is documented in the sources consulted for this three-year window between Richard Bennett's ownership and W. E. Hill and Sons' final repurchase. - **1931-1939** W. E. Hill and Sons `[documented]` (repurchase) Second and final reacquisition by the firm, held until the gift to the Ashmolean. - **1939-present** Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford `[documented]` (gift) Given by Alfred and Arthur Hill in memory of their father, on the condition that it never be played again. Formally accessioned in 1940 as WA1940.112. Loaned briefly to the Museo del Violino in Cremona in 2016 for the tricentenary of its label date; otherwise permanently on display in Oxford. ## Auction results Hammer and buyer's premium are stated separately. Where a source conflates them this record says so. - **1890** W. E. Hill and Sons, - Estimate: Not applicable - Hammer: GBP 2,600 - With premium: Not applicable; this was a private treaty sale brokered by a dealer, not a saleroom auction, so no separate hammer price and buyer's premium exist to distinguish. - Sale by Delphin Alard's heirs, via W. E. Hill and Sons, to Robert Crawford of Edinburgh. Reported at the time as the largest sum ever paid for a single violin. This is the only documented market transaction in the violin's history; it has not been sold, at auction or otherwise, since 1904, and has not been a market object at all since the 1939 gift to the Ashmolean. ## Open questions - What were the exact circumstances of Paolo Stradivari's 1775 sale to Cozio di Salabue, made a year before Paolo's own death? The sources consulted give the fact and date but not the transaction itself. - Who held the violin between roughly 1928 and 1931? The Tarisio Cozio Archive's reconstructed chain shows Richard Bennett's ownership beginning in 1913 and W. E. Hill and Sons' final custody beginning in 1931, with no account of the intervening years. - Is the owner recorded between 1897 and 1904 correctly identified as 'Ernesto Nicolini'? The well-known tenor of that name died in 1898, which sits awkwardly against the stated window, and this record has not independently resolved the discrepancy. - Was Peter Klein's 1738 dendrochronological reading ever published in a peer-reviewed venue? The sources consulted trace it only to a 1998 conference presentation and press coverage, never to a journal article defending it against Topham and McCormick's contrary, published result. - Can Vuillaume's own account of acquiring the violin from Tarisio's estate in 1854-1855 be corroborated by any document independent of Vuillaume's own inscription and later trade testimony? This is the specific, narrower question that Stewart Pollens raised and that dendrochronology, which dates wood rather than ownership, cannot resolve. - Does a surviving written deed record the exact wording of the 1939 condition that the violin never be played? Every source consulted describes the restriction consistently but none was found to quote the original gift instrument verbatim. - Was the Messiah in fact heard, anonymously, at the 1862 London International Exhibition, as one secondary account suggests? This claim is not corroborated by the better-documented 1872 South Kensington Special Exhibition appearance and is treated here as unverified. ## Sources - [1] Wikipedia, 'Messiah Stradivarius'. Tertiary source; flagged for replacement with the Hill firm's own monographs and the peer-reviewed dendrochronology papers cited below. - [2] Ashmolean Museum, 'Messiah Violin, by Stradivari'. - [3] Tarisio Cozio Archive, 'Antonio Stradivari, Violin, Cremona, 1716, the Messiah, Messie, Salabue'. - [4] Tarisio Cozio Archive, 'Stradivari and his sons, part 1'. - [5] Tarisio Cozio Archive, 'A Messianic connection' (on the Ex-Wilhelmj violin's shared wood source with the Messiah). - [6] Violins and Violinists, 'Messiah Complex: The Riddle of the Most Perfect Stradivarius Violin'. - [7] Soundpost Online, 'Dendochronology and the Messiah Stradivarius'. - [8] Soundpost Online, 'Tree Ring Circus: The Messiah Controversy Rages On'. - [9] The Nature of Music, 'The curious case of the violin in a cage'. - [10] Stradivarius.org, 'A True Miracle - The Messiah Stradivarius'. - [11] Euromanticism.org, 'The Messiah Violin'. - [12] Wikipedia, 'Ignazio Alessandro Cozio di Salabue'. - [13] Wikipedia, 'Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume', consulted via search summary. - [14] The Messiah Violin (themessiahviolin.uk), 'Bibliographic Sources', the published bibliography behind John Dilworth's research on the instrument, used here to confirm exact journal citations. - [15] Topham, J. and McCormick, D., 'A Dendrochronological Investigation of Stringed Instruments of the Cremonese School (1666-1757) including the Messiah violin attributed to Antonio Stradivari', Journal of Archaeological Science, volume 27 (2000), pages 183-192. Citation confirmed via source 14; findings as reported in sources 6, 7 and 8, the paper itself not read in full. - [16] Grissino-Mayer, H. D., Sheppard, P. R. and Cleaveland, M. K., 'A dendrochronological re-examination of the Messiah violin and other instruments attributed to Antonio Stradivari', Journal of Archaeological Science, volume 31 (2004), pages 167-174. Citation confirmed via source 14; findings as reported in source 7, the paper itself not read in full. - [17] Grissino-Mayer, H. D., Sheppard, P. R., Cleaveland, M. K., Cherubini, P., Ratcliff, P. and Topham, J., 'Adverse implications of misdating in dendrochronology: Addressing the re-dating of the Messiah violin', Dendrochronologia, volume 28, issue 3 (2010), pages 149-159. Citation confirmed via source 14; the paper itself not read in full. - [18] Wikimedia Commons, File:Messiah Stradivarius.jpg, file description page including licence and the museum's own inventory number. - [19] Wikimedia Commons, File:Messiah Stradivarius ashmolean.JPG, file description page. - [20] Wikimedia Commons, File:J.B.Vuillaume 1860 back 'Le Messie' Stradivarius copy.jpg, file description page. - [21] Wikimedia Commons, File:Lady Blunt top.jpg, file description page. - [22] Museo del Violino, 'The Homecoming to Cremona of the violin Messie - Study Day'. - [23] Alf Studios (Gregg T. Alf), 'Rethinking Antiquing in Contemporary Violin Making, Part 2'. - [24] Stewart Pollens, biography page, on his tenure as Conservator of Musical Instruments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1976-2006) and his publications on Stradivari. - [25] Tarisio, 'Lady Blunt Stradivarius of 1721', notable sales page. - [26] CBS News, 'Stradivarius sold for nearly $16M to aid Japan'. - [27] The Strad, 'Record breaker: Baron Knoop Stradivari violin sells for $23 million'. - [28] George Eliot, 'Stradivarius' (1873/1878), full text. - [29] Pollens, S., 'Le Messie', Journal of the Violin Society of America, volume XVI, no. 1 (1999), pages 77-101; and 'Messiah Redux' and 'The Messie: A Panel Discussion', Journal of the Violin Society of America, volume XVII, no. 3 (2000), pages 159-179 and 181-222. Citations confirmed via source 14; the articles themselves not read in full, their arguments as reported in sources 6, 8 and general search summaries. - [30] Count Cozio di Salabue, Carteggio, transcribed and edited by Renzo Bacchetta (Antonio Cordani, Milan, 1950). Cited at second hand via source 3's summary of the manuscript; the original edition and Brandon Frazier's 2007 English translation not consulted directly. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.