the ex-mosse
TRANSCRIPT
The Ex-Mosse
A Very Fine Italian Violin by Nicolo Gagliano, Naples 1772
Fine & Rare Instruments
The Ex-Mosse A Very Fine Italian Violin by Nicolo Gagliano, Naples 1772
The two-piece back of handsomely figured maple, the ribs and scroll of similar curl, the table of fine-grained spruce, the plentiful varnish of lustrous golden-orange colour, the original label dated Naples 1772.
Length of back: 354mm
Nicolo Gagliano (c. 1710-1785)
Nicolo Gagliano, son of Alessandro, was one of the most famous members of the great Gagliano dynasty, whose violins are much sought after as concert instruments. His work was consistently excellent and often bold, as illustrated by this superb example, liberally covered with his best varnish and his use of choice wood.
This violin was originally from the estate of Rudolf Mosse, one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in Germany during Germany’s Weimar Republic, over 100 years ago. His daughter Felicia, and son-in-law, Hans Lachman Mosse, gifted the instrument to their daughter Hilde during her teenage years, in the hope of encouraging her to take up the violin seriously. Rudolf Mosse was a self-made print media tycoon, the owner of many properties including the Berliner Tageblatt, the ‘New York Times’ of Germany, the country’s leading progressive newspaper. When Hitler assumed power in 1933, the family was exiled from their Berlin homes, and their property which included many important works of art, was expropriated on the orders of the Nazi authorities. The search for these missing art works is ongoing.
Dr. Hilde Mosse went on to become a child psychiatrist in New York City, co-founding the Lafargue Clinic in Harlem in the mid 1940s. Her research work was cited by Thurgood Marshall in the US Supreme Court’s seminal decision in Brown v Board of Education. Upon her death, over 30 years ago, her violin was bequeathed to her stepbrother Professor Karl Strauch, Chair of Harvard’s Physics Department.
Consigned to Brompton’s November Fine Sale
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Fine & Rare Instruments
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