Professor Robert Eschbach has some fresh insights for us about the recently auctioned Stradivarius violin that once belonged the the formidable Joseph Joachim.
Joseph Joachim was the grandson of the internationally prominent wool merchant Isak Figdor, one of the few tolerated Jews in 18th-century Vienna and among the wealthiest men in Europe. The family’s prominence was long-standing: “Isak was the grandnephew of Löb Sinzheim (1675–1744), Chief Court Jew to the Habsburg Imperial Court. In that role, Sinzheim exercised substantial influence by financing imperial operations and mediating between the monarchy and Vienna’s Jewish community. Joseph’s uncles, Isak’s sons Wilhelm and Nathan Figdor, inherited their father’s wool business and were deeply integrated into Viennese high society. They financed Joseph’s education and, in the summer of 1850, around his 19th birthday, bought him a violin: the 1714 Stradivarius now known as the Joachim-Ma. As is well known, the Joachim-Ma Strad recently sold at auction for $10 million ($11.25 million with buyer’s premium).
In an unpublished letter housed at the Brahms-Institut in Lübeck, Joseph writes to his brother: “The violin I have chosen (perhaps the finest Stradivari I know of in Germany) belongs to a wealthy private individual who, though deeply attached to it, resolved to part with it for the price he paid (300 Louis d’or) out of affection for me. I traveled to Bremen, where he resides, and settled the deal with him. I intended to contribute the missing 50 Louis d’or from my own funds, as the sum provided by the uncles fell short. I also promised that if I ever relinquished the violin, he would have the first claim to it.” However, Joseph was still a minor and required his guardian’s permission to spend his own money — which she refused. In the end, the sale was renegotiated and consummated for 250 Louis d’or — still a record price for a violin at that time, except for its previous sale.
In 1850 Germany, Louis d’or—French gold coins originally minted in the 17th–18th centuries—were primarily valued for their bullion content rather than as circulating currency. Germany’s monetary system at that time relied on silver-based currencies like the Vereinsthaler, but gold coins still facilitated high-value transactions among elites and in international trade. While it is difficult to equate 1850 money to contemporary wealth, available information suggests that 250 Louis d’or would have been sufficient to purchase a comfortable townhouse in central Berlin. It was a substantial sum.
The gift of the violin came at a pivotal moment in young Joachim’s career — as he was building his reputation in London and Paris and just before he settled in Weimar as Franz Liszt’s concertmaster. After hearing him perform on it, Clara Schumann remarked on the growth of the expressivity of his playing — clearly, the instrument inspired him as it inspired others. Joachim owned the “Jo-Jo Ma” Strad until he turned 50. As has been widely noted, he undoubtedly played it during the premiere of Brahms’ Violin Concerto; it was his voice during the glory years of his performing career.
See Joseph’s unpublished “thank you” letter to his uncles, which I discovered at the Brahmshaus in Baden-Baden some years ago.
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