For more than 60 years, until his death in 1684, Nicolò Amati was the most famous violin maker in the world. Son and grandson of the violin makers who greatly contributed to the development of the early violin, Nicolò was the maker of the instruments most sought after by the best violinists and the wealthiest enthusiasts for over two centuries until the beginning of the 19th Century.
This violin was made at the height of Nicolò’s career, around the middle of the 17th Century. Amati used two forms for his violins: a slightly smaller one, similar to that usually used by his father and grandfather, and another, which he used less frequently. This violin is based on the second form, called the ‘Grand Pattern’ because of its slightly larger size. This pattern is now generally considered the standard size for a violin, served as a model for most of Amati’s followers in and outside of Cremona and was later fully developed by his best pupil, Antonio Stradivari.
The violin was Gwendoline Pelly’s concert instrument for many years. Born in 1884. Pelly studied violin at the University of Adelaide and in 1902 won a scholarship and moved to London. There, she studied at the Royal College of Music and began a successful concert career, eventually buying the violin either from the French firm Gand and Bernardel or from an unknown previous owner who claimed to have bought it in Florence around 1870. The instrument then repeatedly passed through the Hill firm in London, who sold it first to the famous collector Richard Bennet, then to an amateur named Colls and later to the violinist Robert Lewin, to finally find its way to a Dutchman named Frenkel.
Property of ALAGO Familienstiftung, the violin has been exhibited in the Museo del Violino since 2019, as part of the Friends of Stradivari network.