A romance encircling this master of Cremona tells that in youth he loved his master’s daughter, but that failing to win her heart and hand, he gave himself wholly to his work.  He married, finally, a wealthy widow whose means enabled him to pursue his avocation undisturbed by monetary anxieties.  His labors steadily increased the family property until “as rich as Stradivarius” became a common saying in Cremona.  Because of his achievements and his personal worth, he was held in high esteem.  Members of royal families, prelates of the church, men of wealth and culture throughout Europe, were his personal friends as well as his clients.  His handsome home, with his workshop and the roofshed where he stored his wood, was, until recently, exhibited to visitors.  To-day not a vestige of it remains.  Weary of the importunities of relic-seekers, the Cremonese have torn it down, and have banished violins and every reminder of them from the town.

The tone of a Stradivarius, in good condition, is round, full and exceedingly brilliant, and displays remarkable equality as the player passes from string to string.  Dr. Joseph Joachim, owner of the famous Buda-Pesth Strad, writes of the maker that he “seems to have given his violins a soul that speaks and a heart that beats.”  The Tuscan Strad, one of a set ordered by Marquis Ariberti for the Prince of Tuscany, in 1690, was sold two hundred years later to Mr. Brandt by a London firm for L2,000.  Lady Halle, court violinist to Queen Alexandra, owns the concert Strad of Ernst (1814-1865), composer of the celebrated Elegie, and values it at $10,000.  A magnificent Stradivarius violin, with an exceedingly romantic history, belongs to Carl Gaertner, the veteran violinist and musician of Philadelphia, and could not be purchased at any price.

Another violin-builder from Nicolo Amati’s workshop was Andrea Guarnerius (1630-1695), whose sons, Giuseppe and Pietro, followed in his footsteps.  The family name reached its highest distinction in his nephew, Giuseppe (Joseph) Guarnerius (1683-1745), called del Gesu, because on his labels the initials I. H. S., surmounted by a Roman cross, were placed after his name, indicating that he belonged to a Jesuit society.

This Joseph of Cremona figures in story as a man of fascinating, restless personality, who for weeks would squander time and talents and then set to work with a zeal equalling that of Master Stradivarius.  Tradition has it that he was once imprisoned for some bit of lawlessness, and was saved from despair by the jailor’s daughter who brought him the tools and materials required for violin-building.  What he esteemed the masterpiece of his lonely cell he presented as a souvenir to his gentle friend.

The violin about which this legend is woven, dated 1742, was bought by Ole Bull from the famous Tarisio collection, and is now the property of his son, Mr. Alexander Bull.  It has an unusually rich, sonorous tone and splendid carrying powers.  Similar qualities are attributed to the Paganini Guarnerius del Gesu, 1743, known as the “Canon” and kept under glass at the Genoa Museum.  Mr. Hart, a violin authority, places highest in this make the “King Joseph,” 1737, long in the private collections of Mr. Hawley, Hartford, Connecticut, and of Mr. Ralph Granger, Paradise Valley, California, and recently put on the market by Lyon & Healy, of Chicago.