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Strad Copy Sets Sotheby's Record
TORONTO - by Kate Taylor
The Globe and Mail, November
5, 1993
A copy of a Stradivarius created by a Canadian violinmaker and his U.S.
business partner set an auction record in London, England, this week
for a violin made by a living artisan.
The violin made by Joseph Curtin and Gregg Alf sold for 22,000 pounds
(about $42,460 Cdn.), at an auction held Tuesday by Sotheby's. It is
a copy, right down to every scratch and shading of varnish, of an instrument
known as the Booth Stradivari, made by the famous Italian violinmaker
Stradivarius in 1716. The copy was created by Curtin, a Toronto native,
and Alf, an American, in their Ann Arbor, Mich., workshop in 1990, and
bought by U.S. violinist Elmar Oliveira shortly thereafter. The soloist,
who had used it on concert tours and for recording a CD with the London
Philharmonic, had put it up for sale because he now tours with another
Curtin and Alf replica. This more recent instrument is a copy of a Guarneri
del Gesu violin of 1726, known as the Lady Stretton, which Oliveira also
owns and is valued in the millions.
"It was very gratifying that it went up so high, especially when a player
bought it, not a collector," Curtin said in a telephone interview yesterday. "It
shows it wasn't just being bought for its history but as a good concert violin.
(The violin was purchased by the young Maltese soloist, Carmine Lauri.)
Curtin and Alf charge about $15,500 (U.S.) for a regular violin and $25,000
to reproduce a historical instrument, which they do from plaster casts.
The pair usually work separately on instruments, but the Oliveira violin
was a collaborative effort.
Curtin says science is gradually revealing the secrets of the great historical
violinmakers like Stradivarius, allowing contemporary instrument makers
to copy them. Contemporary violins are also becoming more popular as
the limited supply of historical ones drives prices through the roof.
Curtin and Alf, who have also made instruments for Yehudi Menuhin and
Ruggiero Ricci, can make a living solely through their own work without
selling or repairing instruments other people created, an arrangement
that would not have been possible a few years ago.
1221 Prospect Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48104
(734) 665-2012 fax: (734) 665-4623
email: violins@alfstudios.com