“Arguments rumble on as to whether Guarneri was insane, incompetent or a genius beyond our ken, but there is no denying that this violin is a wonderful artefact, thrilling to the eye and ear”
Written by John Dilworth in the The Strad (October 1994 issue).
This violin was made by Giuseppe Guarneri ‘del Gesù’, in Cremona, 1741.
Joseph (Bartolomeo Giuseppe) Guarneri (1698 – 1744) was an Italian luthier from the Guarneri family.
The violin is a beautiful piece of art as depicted by its poster (The Strad):
“del Gesù” (literally, ‘of Jesus’) used the nomen sacrum IHS (iota-eta-sigma) to denote his initials in the violin labels (meaning either how Jesus was called in Greek or “Iesus Hominum Salvator”).
It has a distinguished red varnish.
“The bass side exhibits a heavy, broad grain, while the treble side is of much finer-grained wood.”
Name
The instrument was named after one of its most famous players: Paul Kochanski (Paweł Kochański) (1887 – 1934), a Polish violinist.
Back length
Perhaps one feature that highlights the Kochanski over the other violins is the back length:
- 1666 Stradivari’s “Aranyi” violin by Antonio Stradivari (1644 – 1737)
- Back length: 348mm
- 1667 Stradivari’s “Jenkins Thompson” violin by Antonio Stradivari
- Back length: 350mm
- 1735 Guarneri’s “Plowden” violin by Guarneri ‘del Gesù (1698 – 1744)
- Back length: 351mm
- 1741 Guarneri’s “Kochanski” violin by Guarneri ‘del Gesù
- Back length: 351.5mm
- 1750 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (1711 – 1786), Milan
- Back length: 350mm
- 1771 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, Turin
- Back length: 350mm
Does 1 mm make all the difference in the world? Well, you tell me. That’s 1 part out of 1,000.
Measurements
The Kochanski violin has the following measurements:
- Back: One-piece, a mirror image of the Ysaÿe of 1740
- Top: Unmatched pieces, the treble side being fine-grained from the same log as the “Vieuxtemps,” and the bass side being wide-grained from the same log as the belly of the “Ysaÿe”
- Length of back: 35.15 cm
- Upper bouts: 16.6 cm
- Middle bouts: 11.1 cm
- Lower bouts: 20.6 cm
Provenance
- in 1880: Enthoven
- in 1907: Charles Davis
- c. 1912 – 1917: Richard Davis
- in 1917: Sold by W. E. Hill & Sons
- 1917 – 1925: Richard Bennett
- in 1927: Sold by W. E. Hill & Sons
- 1927 – 1934: Paul Kochanski
- until 1958: Rosenberg
- 1958 – 2009: Aaron Rosand
- in 2013: Current owner
The next figure shows Aaron Rosand playing the Kochanski (it took him 10 years to pay back the loan he used to purchase the violin):
Current owner
In 2009, the violin was sold, according to this piece by The New Yorker Times:
“The buyer was a Russian billionaire whom Mr. Rosand declined to identify and who paid perhaps the highest price ever for a violin: about $10 million.”
Interesting links
- Paul Kochanski (1887-1934) playing the Kochanski (1741) on YouTube
- Sheila’s Corner
- The Strad Poster of the Kochanski 1741 (£22.95 on Oct/23)
- Tarision on the Kochanski
Epilogue
There you have it. Made by “de Gesù” and ended in some billionaire’s private collection.