Hellier Stradivarius
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The Hellier is a violin made in Cremona, Italy in 1679, by famed luthier Antonio Stradivari. It derives its name from the Hellier family, who might well have bought it directly from Stradivari himself.
The Hellier has had a convoluted ownership history. It seems to have been in the possession of the Hellier family from the beginning of the 1700s. Sir Samual Hellier, an Englishman, brought the violin to England, and through various wills it was kept in the family until 1880, about 180 years.
In 1880, it was sold by Colonel Shaw-Hellier to George Crompton, Manchester, England who, in 1885, sold it to the Hill firm on behalf of Dr. Charles Oldham of Brighton, a medical man with violin-playing talent. Shaw-Hellier repurchased the violin in 1890. Upon his death in 1910, his nephew sold the violin back to the Hill firm, who in turn sold it to Oscar Bondy of Vienna. Bondy kept it until 1925, when he sold it (again to the Hill firm) for £5,000. Hill then sold it to H. E. Morris, Newmarket, England; upon his death in 1944, it was sold to Rembert Wurlitzer, the famous New York violin dealer (yet again through the Hill firm).
In 1956, Wurlitzer sold the violin to Henry Hottinger, who then sold it to Wurlitzer's daughter in 1965. She kept it until 1979, when it was sold to Thomas M. Roberts through violin dealer Alfredo Halegua of the Violin Gallery in Washington, D.C. Roberts sold the violin to Dr. Herbert R. Axelrod in 1998, through Mr. Halegua.
A. Philips Hill has called this violin "one of the finest Stradivaris in existence"; it is currently held by the Smithsonian Institution.
