FAMOUS "STRAD."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 31, 6 February 1937, Page 10

FAMOUS "STRAD."

KESCUED FROM JUNGLE. XEW YORK. From a plantation in a Brazilian jungle, where, carefully boxed, it has lain buried for 40 years, a famous "Strad"— the "Baillot Stradivarius , '—came back. It had been sealed in a lead box. • The instrument, slightly longer than most violins, is like new. ■ "Naturally, it is stiir," Michael Piastro, concert master of the Xew York Philharmonic Orchestra, said, drawing tho bow across the strings, "but the tone, as you can hear for yourself, is remarkable—deep, almost like a-•'cello." The violin was made to order for an ancestor of the famous French violinist, Rone Baillot. For this reason, Piastro said, the instrument is known as the "father to son" violin. From Baillot tho violin went to a wealthy Italian woman. She sold it secretly. It appeared in. the stock of a Continental dealer. It was then that Fritz Kreisler used it for his debut with the Vienna Orchestra. About 40 years ago it disappeared. Stradivarius experts heard that it had been taken to South America. It was found after the death of _ Enrico Margues Valli, who owned it and kept it safe on his plantation.