Other
Josiah Chapman
1946

A small (piccolo) violin made by Antonio Stradivari in Cremona in 1685. Stradivari is considered one of the most talented luthiers in history. The scroll (the curled end at the top of the neck above the pegs) is supposedly made by, or more likely heavily influenced by, Nicolo Amati who was another master luthier from the same city just a couple of generations before Stradivari. This violin became part of the collection of Josiah Chapman, a photography pioneer in Manchester and avid collector of rare string instruments, who bought it for his wife, Elizabeth. He made a small fortune in developing camera technology, with shops on Deansgate and St Peter's Square.
It was sold by the Chapman's son, Charles, in 1936 to W.E. Hills (a violin and bow maker), and then bought back in 1946 to reunite it with the collection which was donated by the Chapman family to the city. This collection is the one which made its way to the RNCM museum.
It has had multiple interventive repairs to keep it safe and stable and occasionally still playable. The violin's neck, bass-bar (a structural feature inside the violin's body), fingerboard and bridge are modern, installed by W.E. Hills.