Over 215 violins, violas, cellos and bows (and guitars) will be sold to the highest bidder on November 27 at Christie's NYC Rockefeller Plaza HQ, including a 1760 Giovanni Baptista Guadagnini violin which could fetch between $400,000-600,000, and between $70,000-90,000 for a 1855 silver-mounted Joseph Henry violin bow.
One day later in London, Sotheby's will auctions manuscripts, letters and memorabilia from the family of Arturo Toscanini (including a Steinway & Sons Grand at an estimated 30,000-50,000 sterling and a handufl of anger-beaten, broken batons) inhereted by his late son Walter and his late grandson Walfredo:
The first sketches for the opening of Falstaff, a work performed by Toscanini throughout his entire conducting career, were presented to him by Verdi’s niece and have remained in the Toscanini family ever since; there is also a complete draft of the “Ave Maria”, from the Four Sacred Pieces. There are letters and manuscripts sent to him by Puccini, Boito, Leoncavallo, Catalani and Richard Strauss which have similarly never appeared on the market.
One of the highpoints, the autograph manuscript, hitherto believed lost, of Mendelssohn’s wonderful overture Die schöne Melusine, a work frequently performed by Toscanini, was given to him on the occasion of his birthday by a great performer, Rudolf Serkin. Toscanini’s engagement with other great artists is visible in his Steinway Grand Piano, played on by his son-in-law, the pianist Vladimir Horowitz. Please note that this piano is not on view at Sotheby’s London, or New York, but at the Steinway showrooms in New York.