This violin was first purchased by W. E. Hill and Sons around 1916, and was originally recorded with the instrument reference D141. Sold on 1st December 1920 to Mary MacPherson-Grant of Ballindalloch Castle for £90. Hills bought the violin back for the same figure in 1927.
Less than a year later in 1928, the violin was sold to the great-aunt of our vendors for a part exchange and £175. The violin has remained in the family ever since and still retains its Hill bridge and fingerboard.
The latest ring on the bass side is 1746 and latest on the treble which seems to be from the same tree dates a little later at 1755.
The cross-matches between the mean (combined data) of the two halves, despite the inaccuracy of measurements, give decent correlations with Italian 18th Century instruments.
From the database, the most significant correlations are:
Joseph Gagliano, 1742 Guarneri del Gesu, Paolo Castello, Lorenzo Storion, c.1760s D.Busan cello, Guarneri del Gesu, Sanctus Serafin, Lorenzo Storioni, Francesco Emilian, 1784 Tomaso Eberle, 1739 Del Gesu, c.1745 Pietro Paolo de Vitor, violin of the Testore school, GB Guadgnini cello... etc. [Peter Ratcliff, 2022]
