Old Violin’s Romantic History

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 104, 4 May 1937, Page 9

Old Violin’s Romantic History

AN AUSTRALIAN FAMILY SYDNEY, April 24. Impregnated with the romance o£ Australian history during tho last 80 years, a 7th century Italian violin is offered for sale in Sydney for £SOOO. The line old instrument, by the Venetian master Santo Seraphin, has beeu in the hands of one family for more than 150 years. It has lain discarded for 18 years since its last owner died, but time has added' to the richness of its tone. Romance was associated with its coming to Australia from Scotland about 1850. On the voyage its young owner drew such sweet music from its strings that a young woman coming out to be married lost her heart instead of the violinist. The shipboard romance culminated in a marriage in Sydney. After many days, the two young lovers eventually settled in New South Wales, and the violin, in time, became ihe property of their tall, handsome son. Gifted, or cursed, with a restless spirit, he had, nevertheless, one steadylove—tho violin that his father had given him. Days of Gold Fever. , The gold-fever caught the young man. Prospecting, and almost dying of thirst, ho was found by a tribe of blacks. The warriors wanted to spear him, but a young “gin’’ pleaded for his life and nursed him back to strength. One of his most pleasant memories in after years was of holding the aboriginal tribe spellbound with the melody of his violin. Eventually he became proprietor of a hotel on the goldfields, married, and had a son. Tragedy came when the wanderer appeared to be setting down. During the absence of the parents, the hotel caught fire, and was burned to the ground. The small son left at home was rescued by a servant. The mother thought that the boy had been trapped. She did not recover from tho shock, and her husband’s heart was broken when she died. He placed his son in the care of a friendly neighbour, who later adopted the boy, and started again on his nomadic life, hunting for gold. Old And Broken Man Fortune did not come his way, aud when he eventually reached his sister in a country town in New South Wales he was an old and broken man, whose only interests were in reading and playing his violin. It had journeyed with him through the years. In the summer ovenings neighbours gathered outside his home to listen to his playing. On his death he left the violin, all he

had, to the daughter of the sister who had cared for him. This is the violin which is, now on sale. Tho maker of the instrument, Santo Seraphin (1678-1737), was a pupil of Nicholas Amati, as was Stradivarius. It is said that, just as Stradivarius knew what was lacking in the Amati instrument, so did Seraphin, his contemporary, improve upon his master.